Two  Presidents: 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

Origin,  Cause  and  Conduct  of  the  War  Between 

the  States 


THE  TRUTH  OF  HISTORY 
BELONGS  TO  POSTERITY 


By  C.  E.  GILBERT 

As  much  as  possible  of  the  Truth  of  History  is  due  the  Patriots  and 
Heroes  who  have  gone  before. 

1927 


HEADQUARTERS 

Trans-Mississippi  Division,  U.  C.  D. 

HOUSTON,  TEXAS 


February  16,  1927 

To  the  Sons  and  Daughters  of  the  Southland: 

Having  read  the  advanced  sheets  of  this  booklet, 
"Origin,  Cause  and  Conduct  of  the  War  between  the 
States",  I  heartily  approve  and  commend  it  to  your 
consideration,  for  its  historic  value,  and  hope  it  will 
be  generally  read. 

J.  C.  FOSTER 
Lt.'General  Commanding  Dept. 
TranS'Mississippi  Division 


■  1 


TWO  PRESIDENTS 


Ok- 


OVl  (Joy: 


i£x  ICthrtH 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  book 

Because  it  has  been  said 
"Sver'thing  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  book." 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


Two  Presidents: 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

Origin,  Cause  and  Conduct  of  the  War  Between 

the  States 


THE  TRUTH  OF  HISTORY 
BELONGS  TO  POSTERITY 

By  C.  E.  GILBERT 


As  much  as  possible  of  the  Truth  of  History  is  due  the  Patriots  and 
Heroes  who  have  gone  before. 

1927 


To  the 

MEMORY  AND  HONOR 
of  the 

STATESMEN  AND  SOLDIERS 
of  the 

SOUTHERN  CONFEDERACY 
and  their 
Heroic  Ancestors  of 
1776,  1836,  1898,  1917, 
who  also  fought 
For  Liberty  and  Home  Rule, 
the 

Great  American  Principal, 
"Government  Only 
By  Consent  of  the  Governed." 


CONTENTS 


Page 

A  Need  for  Refutation  of  False  Propaganda  7-9 

When  the  Strife  Was  Begun  1_12 

Animosity  Antedating  Tariff  or  Slavery  Issues  13 

Judge  Bledsoe's  View  of  Cause  14 

Abraham  Lincoln's  Ambitious  Boyhood  16 

Lincoln  in  Congress  Favored  Secession  for  Massachusetts  .17 

The  Main  Points  at  Issue  in  1860  17 

Northern  Opinion  of  Rights  of  the  States  19 

Lincoln  Was  Picked  as  Vote-Catcher  20 

Lincoln's  Election  by  Minority  Vote  21 

Lincoln  Continues  Life  of  Contradictions  21 

Republican  Party  Leaders  for  War  and  Disunion  21  and  75 

Lincoln's  First  Declaration  of  War  23 

Orders  Maj.  Anderson  to  Hold  Fort  Sumter  24 

Organizes  Fleet  While  Promising  Judge  Campbell  to  With- 
draw Garrison  From  Fort  Sumter   -  24,  25  and  37 

Sent  Ultimatum  to  Governor  Pickens  25 

Violates  Armistice  Between  Two  Governments  26 

Congress  Refused  to  Approve  President's  Acts  27 

Northern  Sentiment  Was  Much  Divided  28 

Responsibility  for  Uncivilized  Warfare  31 

That  Myth  About  "Friend  of  South"    33 

Proof  That  Lincoln  Wanted  War  34,  36 

Seward's  Boast  of  Greater  Powers  Than  a  King  39 

What  Was  the  Real,  Premeditated  Purpose  of  the  War?.— 41 

Jefferson  Davis   43 

Jefferson  Davis'  Constructive  Statesmanship   ..45 

Sounded  Warning  to  Violators  of  Constitution  47 

Farewell  to  Associates  in  Senate    49 

Peaceful  Organization  of  the  Confederacy  50 

Fort  Sumter  Threatened,  Confederates  Take  It  51 

Which  Was  the  First  Gun  of  the  War?  52 

Confederates  Show  Military  Genius  and  Heroism  53 

Another  Myth  Exploded — the  Pay  for  Slaves  54 

Still  Another:  Slavery  as  Cause  of  War   56 

Lincoln's  Proclamation  Did  Not  Include  Grant's  Slaves... .58 
Prison  Mortality  Statistics  Decidedly  in  Favor  of  South... .61 

Capture  of  President  Davis'  Party    63 

Mr.  Davis  Would  Make  No  Effort  to  Escape  65 

Monument  and  Tribute  to  Jefferson  Davis  66 

Lays  Corner-Stone  of  Monument  at  Montgomery  70 

Who  Were  the  Real  Rebels?       76 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


https://archive.org/details/twopresidentsabrOOgilb 


INTRODUCTORY 

THERE  IS  A  REASON 
AND  NEED  FOR  THIS. 

In  my  work  for  several  years  through  the  South,  in 
the  interest  of  the  life  and  object  of  the  Sons  of  Con- 
federate Veterans,  I  have  had  occasion  to  observe  and 
lament  the  lack  of  historical  information  among  young 
men  of  the  present  generation,  even  among  grown-ups, 
and  the  extent  of  alleged  history  which,  through  mis- 
representation, serves  to  discredit  our  fathers  and  de- 
prive them  of  the  honors  justly  due  them.  There  is 
some  reason  for  this  condition: 

The  cause  which  impoverished  the  South  in  the  '60s 
enriched  the  North;  and  while  the  men  of  the  South 
must  return  home  in  the  spring  of  '65  and  devote  years 
of  hard  work  to  rehabilitate  the  Southland,  men  of  the 
North  had  money  and  leizure  to  write,  print  and  mis- 
represent the  cause  and  conduct  of  that  terrible  con- 
flict. 

There  is  reason  in  everything  which  has  any  basis  at 
all.  There  is  a  reason  why  it  is  just  to  assert  that  Presi- 
dent .Abraham  Lincoln's  fame  is  far  beyond  the  man's 
deserts;  his  abilities  exaggerated;  his  virtues  magnified; 
his  statesmanship  over-estimated;  his  one  achievement 
misrepresented  and  misunderstood,  conflictive  in  declara- 
tion, purpose  and  effect. 

All  this  would  be  immaterial  but  for  the  propaganda 
of  misrepresentation  of  issues  and  policies,  having  tend- 
ency and  purpose  to  deceive  those  who  thoughtlessly 


8 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


accept  them.  If  those  policies  and  actions  which  forced 
that  war  upon  the  South  were  false  and  wrong,  then, 
certainly,  Southern  people  insult  the  memory  of  their 
fathers  in  permitting  the  circulation  in  their  homes  and 
schools  of  such  literature. 

Southern  people  are  not  concerned  about  the  exager- 
ated  adulation  of  Lincoln  in  the  North,  or  the  hero-wor- 
ship by  the  negroes  of  the  South  as  long  as  they  wish 
to  be  deluded ;  but  it  is  against  the  wrongful  use  of  their 
publishing  advantage —  the  circulation  of  misrepresenta- 
tions and  calumnies  at  our  own  doors,  that  merits  our 
indignant  protest.  What  would  be  the  reception  accord- 
ed a  proposal  to  name  a  Southern  Female  College  for 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  after  her  gross  misrepresenta- 
tion of  Southern  life?  Or  if  it  were  proposed  to  name 
a  high  school  for  John  Brown  or  Wendell  Phillips,  both 
of  whom  were  early  proponents  to  destroy  the  federal 
constitution  in  order  to  create  negro  insurrection  and 
bring  about  negro  equality — only  in  the  South?  Well, 
Lincoln  claimed  the  power,  and  did  what  these  fanatics 
had  suggested.  Is  there  a  school  in  Massachussets  or 
Ohio  named  in  honor  of  Jefferson  Davis  or  Robt.  E.  Lee  ? 
Has  not  northern  sentiment  kept  out  of  the  Hall  of 
Fame  the  statute  of  Jefferson  Davis — out  of  the  niche 
set  apart  for  Mississippi? 

While  the  men  of  the  South  displayed  their  character- 
istic courage  and  fortitude,  in  the  one  field  as  in  the 
other,  and  were  remarkably  successful  in  restoring  their 
homes  and  industries  to  their  former  glory  and  produc- 
tiveness, it  required  many  years,  and  there  was  little 
time  for  literature;  the  conquerors  went  marching  on 
writing  and  printing  versions  of  events  which  should 
have  been  recorded  with  something  of  the  impartiality 
of  a  magnanimous  victor,  but  instead  were  prejudiced, 
unjust  and  untrue.    The  saddest  phase  of  this  period  so 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  9 


akin  to  the  destructive  political  ''reconstruction"  is 
that  during  these  crippled  years  of  the  South  such  books 
in  innumerable  numbers  found  their  way  almost  alone 
into  the  homes  and  schools  of  the  South  with  their 
venomous  influences.  It  may  be  our  fault — certainly 
our  misfortune — that  so  many  of  our  young  men  are 
unfamiliar  with  the  official  record  of  either  of  the  war 
presidents,  or  the  heroic  parts  their  ancestors  played 
in  that  eventful  period  of  our  country's  history;  and 
consequently  are  unable  to  form  correct  judgment. 
But  they  are  entitled  to  know  the  truth,  and  we  owe  it 
to  our  fathers  that  their  descendants  shall  know  the 
truth — all  the  truth. 

There  is  ample  and  valid  reason  for  disbelieving  and 
repudiating  hundreds  of  the  books  written  (for  gain 
and  hate)  the  years  following  President  Lincoln's  tragic 
and  lamentable  assassination.  Lincoln  was  the  new 
Republican  party's  first  president.  Lincoln,  dead 
and  discredited  (as  had  been  for  a  year),  would  mean 
the  death  of  the  new  Republican  party;  but  Lincoln, 
famous  and  reputed  great  in  achievement,  would  mean 
extended  life  to  the  party.  So,  the  President's  admin- 
istration must  be  extolled,  his  every  act  exhalted,  his 
personality  magnified  to  the  greatest  extent;  the  South 
must  be  charged  with  Lincoln's  death;  the  Southern 
States  must  be  ground  down  and  "reconstructed"; 
Jefferson  Davis  must  be  charged  with  complicity  in 
Lincoln's  death,  and  with  responsibility  for  the  death 
rate  at  Andersonville ;  there  must  be  victims  :  Mrs.  Sur- 
ratt  dragged  from  her  home  and  hanged  with  men  charg- 
ed with  Lincoln's  death,  and  Superintendent  Wirz  of 
Andersonville  hanged  by  military  court;  Jefferson 
Davis  placed  in  a  cell  and  in  irons ; — thus  carrying  out 
the  plan  of  Wendell  Phillips'  Republican  party 
"organization  against  the  South"  to  "trample  the  con- 
stitution under  foot." 


10 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


Hundreds  of  books  were  written  voicing  the  most 
extravagant  adulation  of  the  dead  president,  and  those 
which  dared  tell  some  of  the  truth  were  bought  up 
and  suppressed;  particularly  those  of  W.  H.  Herndon 
and  Ward  Lamon,  who,  though  Republicans  and  former 
law  partners  and  intimate  friends  of  Lincoln,  ' 1  could 
not  tell  the  truth,"  because  they  did  not  participate 
in  the  apotheosis  of  a  man  dead  who  had  been  so  re- 
cently denounced  by  his  associates  while  living.  Even 
Mr.  Chase,  Lincoln's  appointee  from  the  Cabinet  to 
Chief  Justice  Supreme  Court,  who  admitted  his  Repub- 
lican party  devotion  was  not  for  love  of  the  negro  so 
much  as  hate  for  his  master,  said  he  "  Could  never  see 
any  greatness  in  Lincoln." 

These  are  the  reasons  for  the  presentation  of  this 
volume,  that  it  may  be  an  humble  but  helpful  means 
of  disseminating  some  of  the  much  hidden  truths.  In 
offering  it,  I  beg  to  call  attention  to  one  feature  of  it: 
Ninety  per  cent  of  the  authorities  quoted  to  show  the 
gross  inaccuracy  and  injustice  of  the  mass  of  so-called 
history  in  circulation,  are  from  Northern  historians, 
and  newspapers  and  public  men  of  the  Northern  States, 
before,  during  and  since  the  war,  and  also  from  that 
other  invaluable  collection  of  war  records  authorized  by 
act  of  Congress  in  the  name  of  "  Records  of  the  War 
of  the  'Rebellion.'  "  We  can  pardon  the  name  for  the 
truth  it  tells. 

C.  E.  Gilbert 

910  Peden  Avenue,  Houston,  Texas. 


TWO  PRESIDENTS 

Something  of  the  Origin,  Cause  and  Conduct  of  the 
War  Between  the  States 

It  was  Macaully  who  said  "A  people  who  are  not 
proud  of  the  deeds  of  a  noble  ancestry  will  never  do 
anything  worthy  to  be  remembered  by  posterity." 

It  is  the  sacred  duty  of  Southerners,  and  should  be 
their  blessed  privilege  to  contribute  whatever  is  within 
their  means  or  power  for  the  preservation  of  the  truth 
of  history  to  the  honor  and  memory  of  the  Confederate 
Soldiers  and  Statesmen.  Our  fathers  of  '61  fought 
valiantly  to  preserve  and  perpetuate  the  principles  won 
by  our  heroic  ancestors  of  '76  and  true  Americans 
should  delight  to  honor  the  one  no  less  than  the  other. 
The  truth  of  history — of  the  striking  events  of  that 
period — the  simple  truth — is  all  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  Confederacy  desire,  and  that  we  should  insist 
be  taught  in  our  schools  and  in  the  homes  throughout 
the  Southland.  Failure  to  do  so,  neglect  to  do  our  full 
part,  would  be  a  shame  which  should  lose  us  the  re- 
spect even  of  descendants  of  the  men  who  wore  the  blue. 

Even  fair-minded  men  of  the  Northern  States  would 
no  doubt  gladly  welcome  suggestions  which  would  lead 
to  the  full  truth  on  that  important  epoch  in  the  history 
of  our  country — not  for  any  material  advantage,  or  fear 
of  any  false  sentiment,  but  for  the  sake  of  Truth  itself. 

In  this  presentation  of  the  record  of  the  two  central 
figures  in  the  war  between  the  States,  I  make  no  pre- 
tense at  either  'literature'  or  eloquence,  but  endeavor  to 
present  truths  of  history  in  an  effort  to  show  fairly 
and  truly  the  efforts  and  influence  of  the  one  to  pre- 


12 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


serve  the  Union  and  avoid  war  by  a  strict  adherence 
to  the  constitution,  and  statutes,  and  to  adjust  existing 
and  preplexing  problems  by  peaceful  means ;  and  of  the 
other  to  override  law  and  constitution  to  bring  on  war, 
for  what  Seward  termed  "the  higher  law",  which  was 
revolution  reversed,  official  rebellion  against  the  people. 

Jefferson  Davis  was  a  man  of  ability,  stability  of 
character  and  of  the  strictest  integrity — a  man  who 
studied  public  questions,  could  quickly  analyze  per- 
plexing problems,  and  whose  conclusions  were  wise  and 
unchanging.  He  was  not  a  man  of  vacilating  mind, 
favoring  a  measure  today  and  condemning  it  tomorrow, 
nor  the  kind  of  politician  who  changes  his  position  with 
every  shifting  wind.  Because  of  his  ability  and  wis- 
dom and  the  purity  of  his  character,  he  had  the  confi- 
dence of  the  South  and  was  a  trusted  leader.  His  en- 
tire public  career  showed  an  ambition  for  service,  un- 
swerving devotion  to  democratic  principles — a  desire  to 
be  useful  to  his  country  and  helpful  to  fellowmen;  and 
in  that,  his  life  was  a  marked  success. 

When  the  Strife  Was  Begun 

What  was  the  cause  of  the  War  between  the  States? 
The  Northern  writers  generally  say,  Slavery.  But  the 
origin  and  the  cause  dates  back  to  a  period  when  Slavery 
was  in  existence  North  and  South. 

There  was  rivalry  and  jealousy  and  growing  enmity 
between  the  Puritan  and  the  Cavalier,  starting  probably 
when  New  England  failed  in  reciprocation  to  come  to 
the  aid  of  Virginia  in  her  Indian  Wars,  or  perhaps  to 
the  inherent  and  inharmonious  characteristics  of  Puri- 
tan and  Cavalier. 

In  1775,  this  feeling  between  the  two  sections  was 
recognized  by  General  Washington,  when,  at  Boston, 
he  issued  a  stern  order  for  the  summary  punishment 
of  any  man  guilty  of  arousing  that  sectional  animosity. 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  13 


In  1776,  John  Jay,  as  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
recommended  to  Congress  in  the  treaty  with  Spain  there 
should  be  no  American  shipping  on  the  Mississippi 
River  below  the  mouth  of  the  Yazoo,  which  brought  forth 
strong  protests  from  Virginia  and  other  Southern 
States. 

In  1803,  the  North  protested  against  President  Jeff er- 
son?s  purchase  of  Louisiana,  and  yet  strongly  contended 
for  the  control  of  the  Northwest  territory  thereby  ad- 
mitted to  the  Union. 

In  1812,  the  Northern  section  protested  and  criticized 
the  Southern  States  for  the  War  with  England,  which 
by  the  way,  was  won  almost  altogether  by  Southern 
men. 

In  1814,  New  England  representatives  in  the  Hart- 
ford Convention  threatened  secession  because  of  the 
war  with  England. 

In  1820,  Congress,  on  motion  of  Thomas  Jefferson, 
and  by  the  vote  of  Southern  members,  passed  an  act 
prohibiting  the  slave  traffic,  which  stopped  a  very 
profitable  trade  in  New  England  ship-building  and 
kidnapping  Africans.  It  was  then  the  Abolition  senti- 
ment received  it's  first  impetus. 

In  1828,  Congress,  the  Northern  section  again  in  con- 
trol, raised  tariff  taxes  on  imports  for  the  protection 
of  New  England  mills  to  an  extent  which  brought  forth 
vigorous  protest  from  the  South  that  Congress  had  ex- 
ceeded the  powers  delegated  by  the  states,  which 
brought  forth  the  Nullification  Act  of  South  Carolina  in 
1832.  Though  President  Jackson  threatened,  under  the 
leadership  of  Clay  Congress  modified  the  tariff,  and 
South  Carolina  repealed  the  Nullification  Act  in  1833. 

In  1846-7,  Massachusetts  took  the  lead  in  protest 
against  the  Mexican  War  and  threatened  to  withdraw 


14 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


from  the  Union,  if  Texas  was  admitted ;  and  sought  to 
control  the  new  territory  won  by  Southern  valour 
while  they  were  protesting. 

In  1859,  the  Northern  States  annulled  extradition 
laws,  and  not  only  refused  to  surrender  fugitive  slaves, 
but  Ohio  and  Iowa  openly  refused  to  honor  the  re- 
quisition of  the  Governor  of  Virginia  for  two  of  John 
Brown's  raiders  who  were  indicted  with  Brown  for 
murder  in  Virginia. 

In  1860,  there  came  another  national  victory  for  the 
Northern  States  (on  account  of  three  democratic  presi- 
dential tickets)  in  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
both  houses  of  Congress.  With  Wendell  Phillips,  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  new  Republican  party  declar- 
ing the  party  was  "a  sectional  party  organized  against 
the  South",  to  "trampel  the  constitution  under  foot", 
and  S.  P.  Chase  to  be  in  Lincoln's  cabinet  and  his  spokes- 
man in  the  Peace  Conference  declaring  there  would  be 
no  compromise,  and  that  Lincoln's  election  "authorized 
him  to  enforce  his  theories,  regardless  of  Constitution, 
laws,  State  Rights  or  Supreme  Court" — we  have  a 
culmination  of  the  long- growing  enmity  for  the  South, 
an  open  hostility  menacing  the  peace  of  the  South. 

What  was  left  for  the  Southern  States,  except  to  do 
what  New  England  had  often  threatened  to  do — with- 
draw from  the  Union. 

Judge  James  Taylor  Bledsoe's  View 

Judge  James  Taylor  Bledsoe  in  his  "Origin  of  the 
Late  War"  says:  "The  causes  of  the  late  war  had  their 
roots  in  the  passions  of  the  human  heart.  Thus  the 
new  government  worked,  not  according  to  physical 
analogies,  but  according  to  the  principles  of  human 
nature.  The  weak  looked  to  the  Constitution  as  the 
great  charter  of  their  rights;  the  powerful  looked  to 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


15 


their  own  power.  The  minority  held  up  the  shield  of 
State  Rights;  the  majority  laid  it's  hand  on  the  sword 
of  the  Union.  The  only  difference  is,  that  in  thus 
passing  from  the  creed  (State  Rights)  and  the  attitude 
(threatening  secession)  of  the  minority,  to  those  of  the 
majority  and  back  again,  according  to  her  change  of 
position  and  power  in  the  Union,  New  England  has 
been  more  bold  and  unblushing  than  any  other  portion 
of  the  United  States;  and  at  the  same  time  more  lofty 
in  her  pretensions  to  a  purely  disinterested  patriotism 
and  loyalty." 

After  discussing  at  length  the  efforts  at  provision  for 
a  balance  of  power  between  small  and  large  states  by 
equal  representation  in  one  house  and  proportionate 
representation  in  the  other,  and  a  balance  of  power  be- 
tween  the  two  houses,  and  the  legislative,  executive  and 
judicial  departments,  with  the  Supreme  Court  as  final 
arbiter,  Judge  Bledsoe  said: 

"The  failure  to  adjust  or  settle  on  any  solid  basis 
the  balance  of  power  between  the  North  and  South 
was  the  great  defect  of  the  Constitution  of  1787. 
Hence,  if  we  are  not  greatly  mistaken,  the  antagonism 
between  the  North  and  South  so  imperfectly  adjusted 
by  the  labors  of  1787,  is  the  true  standpoint  from  which 
to  contemplate  the  origin  of  the  late  war  ('61.)" 

1 1  Every  man  should  do  all  in  his  power  to  collect 
and  disseminate  the  Truth." — Bobert  E.  Lee. 

Thus,  it  should  be  clearly  understood  that  the  an- 
tagonism was  before  strife  over  the  tariff,  and  was 
growing  in  intensity  before  division  over  slavery.  The 
North  could  not  afford  to  make  the  tariff  a  war  issue 
for  that  w^ould  have  incurred  the  displeasure  and  op- 
position of  Great  Britian;  so  slavery  was  made  their 
pretext  for  wrar,  and  even  that  had  to  be  handled  very 


16 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


cautiously,  for  an  open  issue  would  have  antagonized 
the  Northwest.  Lincoln  had  failed  in  such  an  issue 
with  Stephen  A.  Douglass  over  State  Sovereignty  (in- 
directly involving  slavery),  and  General  Grant  had 
said  even  after  the  war  was  on,  that  1 1  If  this  war  is  for 
emancipation  I  will  resign,  and  go  take  my  sword  to  the 
other  side. ' '  So,  the  movement  for  war  must  be  secretly 
and  very  diplomatically  conducted. 

Lincoln's  Ambitious  Boyhood 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in  Kentucky  in  1809,  in 
humble  circumstances,  raised  mid  poverty  and  unenvi- 
able surroundings,  and  consequently  deserves  credit 
for  application  to  study  and  an  ambition  which  brought 
him  from  obscurity  to  great  eminence.  His  early  man- 
hood, however,  was  spent  among  an  undesirable  element, 
in  population  and  environment,  which  no  doubt  left 
its  impress  upon  his  character.  His  boyhood  studious- 
ness  was  praiseworthy,  and  the  ambition  of  his  early 
manhood  commendable — but  arriving  at  maturity  his 
vacilating  course  politically  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  his  ambition  for  prominence  overshadowed  and 
submerged  the  finer  qualities  and  better  impulses  of 
the  man.  As  a  youth,  his  example  promised  great  worth 
and  usefulness,  but  as  a  man  he  seemed  to  yield  h,im- 
self  to  the  policy  or  methods  which  for  the  time  appear- 
ed to  offer  the  best  aid  to  his  political  advancement. 
Both  Herndon  and  Lamon,  who  were  in  later  life  law 
partners,  and  his  biographers,  state  that  he  chose  fori 
his  friends  the  roughest  and  most  ignorant  of  his  ac- 
quaintances; and  that  upon  one  occasion  in  his  saloon 
in  Salem,  Illinois,  when  one  of  his  friends  was  worsted 
in  a  fight,  Lincoln  grabbed  a  whisky  bottle  by  the 
neck  and  jumped  into  the  ring,  saying:  "I  am  the  big 
buck  of  this  lick,  and  if  any  one  here  wants  to  dispute 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


17 


it  let  him  whet  his  horns  and  step  into  the  ring. ' '  This 
is  quoted  merely  to  show  the  environment  of  his  early 
manhood. 

Abraham  Lincoln  in  Congress 

It  was  soon  after  this  that  he  served  in  the  Black 
Hawk  war,  and  was  elected  to  the  legislature,  where  he 
served  two  terms,  and  soon  thereafter  elected  to  a  seat 
in  Congress.  During  his  term  in  Congress,  the  agitation 
arose  over  the  admission  of  Texas  into  the  Union  during 
the  war  with  Mexico.  Massachusetts  was  threatening 
to  secede  if  Texas  was  admitted,  and  Lincoln  made  a 
speech  favoring  the  right  of  a  state  to  secede.  About 
this  time  a  New  York  member  of  the  House  offered  a 
resolution  expressing  strong  opposition  to  the  war  with 
Mexico,  and  denouncing  it  as  ' '  unjust  and  unconstitu- 
tional" (almost  treasonable),  and  in  supporting  the 
resolution  the  author  made  the  remarkable  declaration 
that  "he  hoped  the  American  Army  would  find  a 
bloody  welcome  and  hospitable  graves."  Lincoln  voted 
for  the  resolution,  following  such  a  declaration,  his 
most  conspicious  act  in  the  House ;  and  yet,  fifteen  years 
later,  he  forced  a  war  more  "unjust  and  unconstitu- 
tional" against  a  section  of  his  own  country,  without 
any  authority  whatever. 

Keep  in  View  the  Main  Points 

There  are  two  great  and  vital  points  which  cannot 
be  ignored,  must  be  understood — two  great  principles — 
underlying  the  cause  of  the  war  between  the  States : 

1.  The  right  of  secession — whatever  the  cause — 
though  slavery  was  not,  only  the  excuse. 

2.  The  right  of  self-defense — the  right  to  repel  armed 
invasion. 

The  right  of  secession  was  reserved  by  the  States  in 
the  organization  of  the  Republic,  and  acknowledged 


18 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


through  the  north,  yea,  claimed  and  threatened  by  all 
of  the  New  England  States  in  the  Hartford  convention 
in  1814  and  again  by  Massachusetts  in  1846  in  her  pro- 
test against  the  admission  of  Texas.  It  was  openly 
conceded  in  public  prints  and  public  speeches  through 
the  north  as  late  as  1861,  by  Lincoln  in  the  House  in 
1847,  even  indirectly  in  the  Republican  platform  of 
1860.  The  right,  then,  should  be  conceded  now  by  every 
fair  man. 

Then,  as  to  the  right  of  the  south  to  fire  on  Forti 
Sumter :  After  months  of  delay  in  the  evacuation  of 
the  fort  by  the  Federal  garrison;  Lincoln's  instructions 
to  Major  Anderson  to  hold  the  fort,  he  would  send  re- 
inforcements ;  repeated  promises  of  Lincoln  and  Seward 
to  withdraw  the  garrison,  and  their  violation  of  the 
pledges;  their  equipment  of  a  Relief  Squadron,  and 
appearance  of  the  re-inforcement  fleet  off  Charleston, 
after  that  state  had  peacefully  and  formally  seceded 
and  was  a  State  of  the  duly  organized  Confederate 
States — was  purely  an  act  of  self-defense ;  as,  had  Fort 
Sumter  been  occupied  by  Federal  re-inforcements,  the 
next  move  would  be  on  Charleston. 

Horace  Greeley  said  in  1861 :  * '  If  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  justified  the  3,000,000  colonists  in  1776, 
I  do  not  see  why  the  constitution  ratified  by  the  same 
men  should  not  justify  the  secession  of  6,000,000  South- 
erners in  1861." 

John  Quincy  Adams  in  1839  made  an  elaborate  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  right  of  secession  of  the  State ;  while 
Josiah  Quincy  made  the  first  claim  in  Congressional 
halls  to  the  right  of  secession  in  1811. 

Benj.  J.  Williams  of  Massachusetts,  in  his  book  "Died 
for  his  State ' '  said  of  the  right  of  secession  reserved  by 
the  States,  that  "Each  State  has  the  right  to  judge  for 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


19 


itself  if  the  infraction  of  the  Federal  government  is 
sufficient  to  warrant  her  withdrawal." 

New  York  Herald,  November  11th,  1860;  "The  south 
has  the  undeniable  right  to  secede  from  the  Union.  In 
the  event  of  secession,  the  city  of  New  York  and  New 
Jersey  will  go  with  them." 

Great  Ohio  Lawyer's  View  of  State  Rights 
Benj.  T.  Wade,  of  Ohio,  "Who  is  the  arbiter  of  that 
right?  Why  to  yield  the  right  of  the  State  to  with- 
draw" would  be  to  "submit  to  a  miserable  despotism." 

In  1847  Lincoln  believed  in  the  right  of  secession,  and 
spoke  in  favor  of  it,  but  in  1861  opposed  it.  At  Peoria, 
Illinois,  in  1854  he  said,  "The  slaveholder  has  a  moral 
and  legal  right  to  his  slaves."  In  1857  he  said  that  the 
negro  was  an  inferior  being  and  would  never  be  fit  for 
citizenship.  At  Chicago  and  Springfield,  Illinois,  in 
1858,  he  took  the  position  in  debate  with  Douglas  that 
the  negro  was  equal  to  the  white  man  and,  as  he  claimed, 
' '  entitled  to  equal  rights  as  declared  by  the  Declaration 
of  Independence, ' ' ;  but  in  his  response  to  Judge  Dou- 
glas in  South  Illinois,  (settled  by  people  from  the  south) 
he  strenuously  endeavored  to  deny  this  and  explained  or 
modified  his  criticism  of  a  Supreme  Court  decision  that 
"The  negro  could  never  be  a  citizen."  Yet,  Lincoln's 
proclamation  in  1863  was  designed  to  start  the  negro 
on  to  citizenship.  100,000  of  them  being  enlisted  in  the 
Federal  Army  at  his  instance. 

In  that  memorable  debate  Douglas  often  tried  to  get 
Lincoln  to  repeat  in  South  Illinois,  utterances  of  his  in 
Northern  Illinois,  and  vice-versa — so  contradictory  were 
his  speeches  in  the  two  sections.  While  Illinois  was 
Anti-State-Sovereignty  and  Lincoln  made  his  campaign 
for  Senator  on  that  issue  (though  dodging  it  in  South 
Illinois)  he  was  defeated  by  Douglas,  largely  because 
of  his  varying  and  conflicting  utterances. 


20  SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


When  the  leaders  of  the  new  Republican  party 
came  to  look  for  a  candidate  for  president,  they  con- 
cluded that  Wm.  H.  Seward  of  New  York,  and  others 
were  so  partisan  neither  could  carry  the  West.  "Any 
nominee  could  carry  Pennsylvania,  New  York  and  New 
England"  they  urged,  "but  a  western  man  is  neces- 
sary to  carry  the  states  west  of  Ohio."  So  Lincoln  as 
a  man  who  would  appeal  to  the  west  and  the  labor 
(Democratic)  vote  of  the  cities  was  agreed  on  and 
nominated  at  Chicago.  But  the  managers  did  not  dare 
make  their  platform  on  the  issues  of  the  day  express 
their  real  views.  On  the  contrary,  to  deceive  the  West 
which  was  largely  in  sympathy  with  the  South,  the 
Republican  platform  declared  for  the  "rights  of  the 
states  to  govern  their  domestic  affairs,  exclusively,  as 
essential  to  the  perfection  and  endurance  of  our  politi- 
cal fabric,"  and  as  there  was  then  talk  of  the  Southern 
States  seceding  "we  denounce  the  lawless  invasion  by 
an  armed  force,  on  the  soil  of  any  State  or  territory  no 
matter  under  what  pretext,  as  among  the  gravest  of 
crimes."  But  evidently,  he  was  not  expected  to  carry 
out  this  party  pledge ;  and  he  did  not. 

Mr.  Lincoln  well  understood  and  himself  explained  in 
a  speech  at  Indianapolis,  what  would  constitute  a  com- 
mission of  this  "gravest  of  crimes,"  when  he  gave  his 
own  definition  of  the  terms  "coercion"  and  "invasion" 
in  declaring  "the  marching  of  an  army  into  South 
Carolina  (then  having  seceded)  without  the  consent  of 
her  people  would  be  'invasion,'  and  it  would  be  'coer- 
cion' if  South  Carolinians  were  forced  to  "submit". 
But  isn't  that  exactly  what  he  did  do  within  three 
months  after  his  explanatory  approval  of  the  platform 
upon  which  he  was  elected?  However,  distrust  was 
so  prevalent,  a  million  votes  were  cast  against  him  in  the 
Northern  States.    Because  of  four  presidental  tickets, 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


21 


three  Democratic,  Lincoln  received  only  about  a  third 
of  the  popular  vote,  but  a  plurality  gave  him  the  elec- 
toral vote  of  the  Northern  States  and  he  was  elected.  So 
he  could  not  claim  to  be  acting  in  response  to  any  popu- 
lar demand. 

His  election,  however,  though  by  less  than  a  majority 
even  in  the  Northern  States,  was  regarded  in  the  South 
as  an  act  of  hostility  toward  the  South  and  the  Republi- 
can party  so  intended  it ;  so  Southern  States  begun  to 
secede.  As  to  the  feeling  of  bitterness  and  the  intent  of 
the  leaders,  no  man  is  better  qualified  to  speak  than 
Wendell  Phillips,  one  of  the  originators  and  organizers 
of  the  Republican  party,  and  he  declared  that  ' '  The  Re- 
publican party  is  a  sectional  party  and  is  organized 
against  the  South",  and  again  he  made  that  most  re- 
markable admission:  ''And  I  confess  we  intend  to 
trample  under  foot  the  constitution  of  this  country". 
That  is  a  definition  of  the  "higher  law"  Seward  de- 
clared they  would  appeal  to — the  setting  aside  of  con- 
stitution, statutes  and  rights  of  the  states — which  was 
nothing  less  than  mob  law  by  officialdom — culmination 
of  a  feeling  of  bitterness  which  had  been  growing  for 
a  hundred  years  and  which  called  forth  Washington's 
order  to  his  army  that  he  would  punish  severely 
any  one  guilty  of  revival  of  "existing  sectional  animos- 
ity." That  was  in  '76  when  slavery  existed  North  and 
South. 

President  Lincoln's  Self-Contradictions 

In  his  first  Inaugural  Address,  President  Lincoln 
said,  "I  have  no  purpose  directly  or  indirectly  to  in- 
terfere with  slavery  in  States  where  it  exists,  I  believe  I 
have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination 
to  do  so " ;  yet,  his  acts  of  war,  a  month  later,  were  the 
first  steps  in  that  direction,  and  his  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  eighteen  months  later,  another  usurpa- 


22 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


tion  of  power  which  was  in  marked  contrast  to  his  ut- 
terances. He  also  just  as  earnestly  declared  before  Con- 
gress, to  the  Southerners,  "I  will  not  assail  you."  But 
was  not  that,  in  view  of  subsequent  events,  another 
" irrepressible  conflict"  between  his  promises  and  his 
actions?  All  authorities  having  conceded  the  right  to 
secede,  he  should  not  assail.  But  why  try  to  hold 
a  fort  commanding  Charleston  if  coercion  was  not  in- 
tended? Which  came  from  his  heart — his  words  or  his 
acts?  Was  he  sincere?  Or  was  he  being  used  by  those 
who  secured  his  nomination?  If  the  latter,  where  his 
greatness?  It  was  admitted  by  the  biographer  of 
Ceasar  Borgia  that  "His  genius  was  little  more  than 
lack  of  principle  which  allowed  no  scruple  to  stand  in 
the  way  of  his  design."  Borgia,  too,  was  idolized  by  his 
followers.  A  cardinal  at  17,  he  convulsed  his  country 
at  30,  and  was  killed  at  32.  He  too  was  listed  among 
the  world's  great  men. 

George  Lunt,  Massachusetts  historian,  said :  ' '  The  new 
president  was  of  scarcely  more  than  ordinary  powers — 
with  mind  neither  cultivated  by  education  or  experience 
— being  thus  incapable  of  any  wide  range  of  thought  or 
of  obtaining  any  broad  grasp  of  ideas.  His  thoughts 
ran  in  low  channels."  "In  his  debate  with  Douglass 
he  said:  'I  am  not  a  gentleman  and  never  expect  to  be'." 

Idolized  by  some  as  a  great  man,  Lincoln's  utterances 
from  1847  to  1864  show  a  most  remarkable  series  of  con- 
traditions  and  inconsistencies.  Finally  accepting  a 
nomination  upon  a  platform  declaring  the  rights  of  the 
states  to  control  their  own  domestic  and  internal  affairs 
and  against  any  armed  invasion  or  interference  with  a 
seceding  state;  and  by  acceptance,  pledging  himself  to 
that  principle  and  policy,  and  explaining  in  a  public 
speech  at  Indianapolis  in  February  1861  his  full  under- 
standing of  this  "gravest  of  crimes",  declared  against 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


23 


such  ''gravest  crimes",  he  reiterated  such  sentiment, 
(if  not  conviction)  in  his  Inaugural  Address,  followed 
by  his  oath  to  support  the  constitution.  Yet,  in  a  very 
few  weeks  after  his  inauguration  he  announced  his  deter- 
mination to  "hold,  possess  and  use  the  forts  of  the  South 
to  collect  customs  through  Southern  ports",  which  was 
in  itself  a  practical  declaration  of  war,  and,  says  Hos- 
mer,  the  historian,  "really  precipitated  the  outbreak  of 
an  offensive  war."  To  attempt  to  hold  the  Southern 
ports  and  forts  by  force  would  be  a  violation  of  the  Re- 
publican platform,  Lincoln's  frequent  avowals  of  ap- 
proval, and  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  states  and 
his  oath.  He  also  issued  proclamations  suspending  the 
Writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  which  was  also  without  author- 
ity, as  Congress  alone  was  vested  with  that  power. 

In  other  words,  after  Mr.  Lincoln  became  president 
he  seemed  to  throw  off  his  mask  and  assume  the  powers 
of  a  despot.  Either  he  had  been  insincere  in  his  various 
utterances,  or  else  he  owed  to  the  Republican  bosses  for 
promotion  of  his  ambition  complete  subserviency  to  their 
stronger  will.  Pie  was  either  a  puppet  in  the  hands 
of  Wm.  H.  Seward.  Edward  M.  Stanton,  Lloyd  Gar- 
rison, Cbas.  Sumner  and  Thad.  Stevens,  or  his  great- 
ness was  of  the  Nero  brand — power  at  any  price. 

The  Conspiracy  to  Bring  on  War 

In  his  inaugural  address,  President  Lincoln  said :  "  I 
will  not  assail  you,"  and  later  said:  "This  country  with 
its  institutions  belongs  to  the  people  who  inhabit  it. 
"Whenever  they  grow  weary  of  the  existing  government 
they  can  exercise  their  constitutional  right  of  amending 
it,  or  their  revolutionary  right  to  dismember  or  over- 
throw it."  This  in  connection  with  his  declaration  that 
the  problem  represented  an  irrepressible  conflict,  re- 
peated by  his  Secretary  of  State,  Seward,  and  the  de- 


24 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


claration  of  Secretary  of  Treasury  Chase  who,  as  spokes- 
man for  the  President  at  the  Peace  Conference  declared 
that  the  election  of  Lincoln  was  authority  to  enforce  his 
theories  on  the  country  regardless  of  Constitution, 
statutes,  or  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court — these  ut- 
terances with  others  of  leaders  such  as  Garrison,  Phillips, 
John  Brown,  Beecher,  Andrews  and  Chase,  show  most 
conclusively  that  revolution  against  the  constitution  was 
designed  to  overthrow  the  government. 

1 1  The  secret  treachery  that  caused  the  war  will 
come  to  light  and  justify  the  South.  Truth  is  death- 
less."— Admiral  Raphael  Semmes. 

The  Confederate  States  organized  their  government 
peacefully — not  a  gun  was  fired  or  a  single  man  in- 
jured— when  President  Lincoln  issued  orders  to  Major 
Anderson,  U.  S.  Commander  at  Fort  Sumter,  to  ''hold 
the  fort,  he  was  sending  reinforcements."  He  had  re- 
fused to  consider  President  Davis'  proposal  to  apportion 
federal  property  (forts,  etc)  and  the  public  debt  (See 
Rec.  of  Reb.  Vol.  1,  p.  109)  and  now  refused  to  treat 
with  President  Davis'  commission  sent  to  petition  the 
withdrawal  of  the  troops  from  Fort  Sumter,  South 
Carolina,  to  avoid  an  armed  conflict.  The  Confederate 
Commissioners,  Judge  Crawford  and  John  Forsyth,  then 
secured  the  co-operation  of  Judges  Campbell  and  Nel- 
son of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  interceded  with  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  and  Secretary  of  State  Seward,  who  finally 
promised  to  order  the  withdrawal  of  the  U.  S.  Troops 
from  Fort  Sumter — that  the  commission  could  return 
"assured  of  finding  on  their  arrival  orders  to  Major 
Anderson  to  evacuate  Fort  Sumter."  Instead,  how- 
ever, the  "Relief  Squadron"  of  eleven  vessels,  all  that 
time  (twenty-three  days)  being  loaded  with  arms,  provi- 
sions and  two  thousand  men,  arrived  off  Fort  Sumter 
about  the  time  Commissioners  Crawford  and  Forsyth 
arrived  in  Charleston.    Upon  discovering  the  base  du- 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  25 


plicity  practiced  at  Washington  and  before  the  fleet 
could  reach  Sumter  the  Confederates,  after  demanding 
immediate  surrender,  reduced  the  fort  and  the  war  was 
begun.    Thus  again  Lincoln  reversed  himself. 

Gregg's  History  of  the  United  States,  pp.  166-7  sayS: 
" Suspecting  trickery  (on  report  of  Lamon's  visit  to 
Anderson)  Judge  Campbell  wrote  Seward  inquiring  as 
to  delay,  and  Seward  answered  'Faith  as  to  Sumter 
fully  kept;  wait  and  see.'  At  that  very  moment  the 
secret  expedition  was  started  and  expected  to  reach 
Charleston  within  48  hours.  On  the  next  day  after 
Seward's  explicit  and  written  pledge,  Chew  a  clerk  of 
Seward's  with  a  Captain  Talbot  appeared  in  Charleston 
and  read  to  Governor  Pickens  and  General  Beauregard, 
a  paper  delivered  to  Chew  by  Lincoln  on  April  6th,  day 
before  Seward's  last  specific  pledge  to  evacuate  the  fort, 
notifying  the  State  government  that  (the  11-vessel  fleet 
due  to  arrive  next  day)  "the  Federal  government  would 
attempt  to  supply  Sumter  with  provisions,  and  if  not 
resisted,  no  attempt  would  be  made  to  throw  in  ammuni- 
tion and  men  without  further  notice" — which  showed 
an  evident  purpose  to  ship  in  men  and  ammunition  with 
the  supplies  and  a  threat  they  would  eventually  do  so 
by  force.  "That  paper  by  President  Lincoln  was  a 
declaration  of  war,  and  the  expedition  actual  com- 
mencement of  hostilities,  a  signal  act  of  treachery, ' '  says 
Gregg. 

Again,  it  is  evident  that  if  Lincoln  was  a  good  man, 
sincere  and  honest  in  his  promises  to  Judges  Campbell 
and  Nelson,  then  his  stronger  minds  were  acting  for 
him,  which,  to  say  the  least,  mixes  perfidy  or  imbecility 
with  greatness,  duplicity  with  statesmanship,  until  it  is 
difficult  to  discern  where  the  one  begins  and  the  other 
ends. 


26  SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


Violates  Armistice 

When  Lincoln  became  president  and  commander  in 
chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  United  States,  he,  of 
course,  came  in  possession  of  information  of  the  treaty 
o'r  armistice  between  the  United  States  on  the  one  hand 
and  the  Confederate  States  and  the  seceding  States  of 
South  Carolina  (Dec.  6,  1860)  and  Florida  (Jan.  29, 
1861)  on  the  other  hand — both  filed  in  the  U.  S.  War 
Department  and  in  the  U.  S.  Navy  Department — 
whereby  it  was  solemnly  agreed  that  no  attempt  would 
be  made  by  the  United  States  to  reinforce  Fort  Sumter 
or  Fort  Pickens,  and  the  C.  S.  A.  and  States  would  not 
attack  the  forts  while  these  solemn  agreements  were  ob- 
served. Yet,  President  Lincoln  sent  Fox  and  Lamon  into 
Fort  Sumter  and  Worden  to  Fort  Pickens  under  guise 
of  friendly  messages  pertaining  to  evacuation  of  the 
Forts,  but  in  fact,  as  spies,  to  secure  information  and 
convey  secret  messages. 

To  violate  an  armistice  is  considered  a  treacherous 
act  of  war.  To  send  a  party  into  such  a  fort,  or  any 
man  entering  a  fort  under  armistice  for  the  purpose  of 
advising  or  in  any  way  to  reinforce  such  fort  or  de- 
fense is  the  act  of  a  spy,  is  in  itself  a  reinforcement,  an 
act  of  war.  (See  Rec.  of  Rebellion,  Vol.  I.  pp.  Ill,  114.) 
For  either  party  to  prepare  to  act  against  a  point  cov- 
ered by  armistice  is  an  act  of  war.  Just  another  in- 
stance of  determined  disregard  for  constitution,  law,  and 
humanity. 

There  were  many  able  men  North  who  agreed  with 
Judge  Williams,  Massachusetts  historian  that  ' 'The 
North  had  no  Constitutional  right  to  hold  Fort  Sumter, 
in  case  the  Southern  States  seceded,  and  to  hold  it  meant 
war."  The  States  gave  the  land  for  defense  purposes, 
particularly  for  defense  of  the  State,  and  were  entitled 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


27 


to  their  proportion  of  the  federal  property — arsenals, 
arms  and  ammunition,  as  well  as  forts. 

While  Northern  writers  generally  say  that  the  war  was 
a  result  of  firing  on  Fort  Sumter,  it  is  a  fact  fully 
recorded  in  the  Records  of  the  'Rebellion'  by  Congress, 
that  eleven  days  before  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter, 
Captain  Vogdes'  artillery  force,  by  order  of  President 
Lincoln  arrived  at  Fort  Pickens  in  Florida,  instructed 
by  Lincoln  to  take  that  fort,  and  would  have  done  so,  but 
for  the  refusal  of  Captain  Adams  to  convey  the  artillery 
force  to  land,  Adams  urging  that  such  violation  of  the 
armistice  would  bring  war.  Captain  Adams  was  re- 
primanded and  again  commanded  to  furnish  boats  to 
land  Captain  Vogdes'  artillery,  which  was  done  on  night 
of  April  11th,  and  the  fort  taken  over  by  Captain 
Vogdes,  a  cause  of  war,  intended  to  provoke  war.  But 
in  the  greater  excitement  over  Fort  Sumter  the  incident 
was  overlooked.  That  act  of  war  was  prior  to  the  firing 
on  Fort  Sumter.  (See  Rec.  of  Rebellion  Vol.  I,  pages 
11  to  153  and  367,  376.) 

Even  Republican  Congress  and  Leaders  Condemn 

After  the  Fort  Sumter  incident,  President  Lincoln 
called  for  75,000  volunteers  to  invade  the  South.  He 
could  have  called  Congress  to  convene,  as  required  by 
the  Constitution,  and  take  that  responsibility;  but, 
though  he  had  endorsed  the  Chicago  platform  against 
this  ''gravest  of  crimes",  he  preferred  to  assume  all  the 
responsibility  himself.  When,  however,  he  did  convene 
Congress,  (July  4th)  after  he  had  succeeded  by  his  own 
unauthorized  and  despotic  acts  in  irrevocably  commit- 
ting his  country  to  war,  and  his  friends  asked  Congress 
to  approve  of  the  president's  course,  Congress  declined. 
This  declination  is  another  proof  that  the  country — even 
the  northern  states — (southern  members   had   all  re- 


28 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


signed)  was  up  to  that  time  not  in  accord  with  the  Re- 
publican policy  which  was  threatening  disunion  and  war. 
Then  too,  the  Joint  Resolution  presented,  but  rejected, 
was  admission  of  the  unconstitutionality  of  his  acts. 

The  North  Was  Much  Divided 

New  York  was  strongly  opposed  to  that  policy  and 
leading  public  men  and  newspapers  all  over  the  North 
openly  expressed  sympathy  with  the  South 's  position 
and  condition  and  the  New  York  Tribune,  Express, 
and  Herald,  the  Albany  Argus  and  Rochester  Union 
declared  the  Southern  States  were  justified  in  seceding 
to  escape  the  intermedling  and  insults  which  had  been 
hurled  at  the  South.  This  sentiment  was  so  pronounced, 
and  had  been  expressed  in  Lincoln's  own  state  by  his  de- 
feat for  U.  S.  Senator,  that  the  president  could  not  feel 
he  was  acting  in  response  to  a  public  sentiment.  In  fact 
the  New  York  Express  on  April  15th,  day  after  sur- 
render of  Fort  Sumter,  the  day  Lincoln  called  for  75,000 
volunteers  to  invade  the  South,  said,  "The  people  of 
the  United  States,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  petitioned, 
begged  and  implored  of  these  men  (Lincoln,  Seward 
et  al)  who  are  become  their  accidental  masters,  to  give 
them  an  opportunity  to  be  heard  before  this  unnatural 
strife  was  pushed  to  a  bloody  extreme,  but  their  peti- 
tions were  all  spurned  with  contempt ;  and  a  conflict  be- 
gun 'for  the  sake  of  humanity'  culminates  now  in  in- 
humanity itself."  Each  side  blamed  the  other  with  be- 
ing the  cause  of  the  war — the  one  for  the  first  gun,  the 
other  for  the  provocation  or  necessity.  Mr.  Hallam,  a 
noted  English  authority  on  constitutional  law,  states  a 
universally  recognized  principle  when  he  says  "The 
Aggressor  in  war — that  is,  he  who  begins  it — is  not  the 
first  who  uses  force,  but  the  first  who  renders  force 
necessary. ' 1 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


29 


As  most  of  the  Lincoln  propaganda  represents  the 
war  between  the  states  as  a  rebellion  on  the  part  of  the 
South  without  cause,  or  for  slavery  solely,  I  will  quote 
here  one  from  the  many  I  could  quote  of  Northern  and 
Republican  leaders:  Judge  Williams  of  Massachusetts 
^ys:  ''There  was  no  need  of  war.  The  action  of  the 
Southern  States  was  legal  and  constitutional,  and  his- 
tory will  attest  that  it  was  reluctantly  taken  in  the  last 
extremity,  in  the  hope  of  thereby  saving  their  con- 
stitutional rights  and  liberties  from  destruction  by  Nor- 
thern aggression,  which  had  just  culminated  in  triumph 
in  the  presidential  election  by  the  union  of  North  against 
South — the  South  was  invaded  and  a  war  of  subjuga- 
tion was  begun  by  the  Federal  government." 

John  A.  Logan,  afterwards  Major  General  and  nomi- 
nee for  Vice-president  on  the  Republican  ticket,  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  February  5th,  1861,  said,  "By 
these  denunciations  and  lawless  acts  (of  Northern  peo- 
ple) such  results  have  been  produced  as  to  drive  the 
people  of  the  Southern  States  to  a  sleepless  vigilance 
for  the  protection  of  their  property  and  the  preserva- 
tion of  their  rights." 

The  Albany  Argus,  of  November  10,  1861,  said:  "We 
sympathize  writh  the  South.  Self  preservation  and 
manhood  rightly  impelled  them  to  separation  from  the 
Union,  and  we  applaud  them  and  wish  them  God-speed. ' ' 

The  Rochester  Union,  about  the  same  time,  said, 
' 1  Restricting  our  remarks  to  actual  violations  of  the  con- 
stitution, the  North  has  led  the  way,  and  for  a  long  time 
was  the  sole  aggressor.  The  South  cannot  retaliate  ex- 
cept by  secession." 

Judge  Black,  one  of  the  leading  jurists  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, said,  "They  (Northern  Republicans)  applauded 
John  Brown  to  the  echo  for  a  series  of  the  basest  mur- 


30 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


ders  on  record,  and  tolled  Church  bells,  fired  minute 
guns,  and  held  services  in  Churches  draped  in  mourn- 
ing, when  he  was  legally  hung.  They  did  not  conceal 
their  hostility  to  Federal  and  State  governments  nor 
deny  their  enmity  to  all  laws  which  protected  white 
men.  The  constitution  stood  in  their  way  and  they 
cursed  it  bitterly.  The  Bible  was  quoted  against  them 
and  they  reviled  God  the  Almighty  himself."  That 
was  the  radical  minority  madness,  Lincoln  represented 
in  his  determination  to  ruin  the  South,  or  in  his  weak 
subserviency  to  the  master  minds  who  directed  him. 

Virginia,  the  last  to  secede,  before  seceding,  called  for 
a  peace  conference  at  Washington,  and  while  a  majority 
west  of  the  Ohio  were  for  peace,  the  convention  was 
stocked  with  partisans.  For  instance,  Senator  Zack 
Chandler  wired  his  governor  (Michigan)  "Too  many 
peace  advocates  coming  here ;  send  some  men  with  the 
fighting  spirit ;  unless  we  can  have  some  bloodletting, 
this  country  won't  be  worth  a  curse."  Evidently  Chand- 
dler  got  his  "men  with  the  fighting  spirit"  as  the 
peace  advocates  were  out  generaled. 

Horton 's  History,  page  62 :  "  Carl  Schurz,  a  notorious 
agitator  and  disunionist  of  Wisconsin,  telegraphed  from 
Washington  to  his  governor:  "Appoint  some  commis- 
sioners to  Washington  conference — myself  one — to 
strengthen  our  side" — the  faction  opposed  to  any  peace 
measures. 

The  President's  Uncivilized  Warfare 

War  was  on  with  all  its  horrors — deaths  on  the  battle- 
field and  deaths  in  over-crowded  prisons.  Southern 
troops  captured  Federal  soldiers  faster  than  they  could 
be  cared  for — 37,000  were  crowded  into  Andersonville 
Stockade  at  one  time.  Who  suspended  the  cartel  for 
exchange  of  prisoners?  President  Lincoln.  President 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  31 


Davis  sent  one  commissioner,  and  later  two,  to  induce  a 
renewal  of  the  cartel,  Linclon  would  not  permit  it, 
though  all  the  time  his  own  people  were  clamoring  for 
a  renewal  of  exchange,  and  he  was  thereby  responsible 
for  a  policy  which  permitted  his  men  to  die  in  Southern 
prisons,  and  ours  to  starve  and  freeze  to  death  in  North- 
ern prisons.  He  was  the  cause  thereby  of  thousands  of 
deaths,  and  untold  suffering.  He  permitted  the  execu- 
tion of  Southerners  contrary  to  civilized  warfare. 

It  was  President  Lincoln  who  issued  orders,  as  Com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  Federal  Army,  to  his  generals 
which  inaugurated  the  cruel  and  inhuman  manner  of 
warfare  conducted  by  Sheridan  and  Hunter  in  Virginia 
and  Sherman  on  his  march-to-the-sea,  a  war  against 
women,  children  and  old  men,  pillaging  and  then  burn- 
ing their  homes,  after  killing  all  stock  and  destroying 
other  property  they  could  not  carry  away.  Such  war 
and  cruelty  was  in  striking  contrast  to  the  war  conducted 
by  President  Davis  and  General  Lee  when  Confederate 
armies  were  on  northern  soil.  When  Southern  armies 
went  into  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  President  Davis 
said  :  1 1  We  are  not  fighting  women  and  children,  but  men 
in  arms",  and  these  were  strict  orders:  "Private  pro- 
perty was  not  to  be  injured. ' '  If  Lincoln  did  not  plainly 
order  wanton  destruction  and  cruelty,  it  is  a  fact  that 
there  is  no  record  of  his  ever  disapproving  of  it.  Those 
orders  for  devastation  did  not  originate  with  General 
Grant.  He  had  no  sympathy  with  such  warfare ;  but  as  a 
soldier  he  passed  the  order  on  to  his  subordinates,  and 
those  subordinates  are  on  record  as  boastfully  reporting 
compliance.  It  was  by  "order  of  the  President"  that 
Secretary  of  War  E.  M.  Stanton  issued  the  order  on 
July  22,  1862,  to  the  Commanders  of  the  Federal  army 
throughout  the  Southern  States  to  'seize  and  use  any 
property  belonging  to  the  inhabitants,   etc,'  without 


32 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


provision  for  pay.  (Conf.  Hist.  Report,  p  76.)  It  was 
also  'by  order  of  the  president'  that  a  special  order  was 
issued  to  General  Pope  and  General  Steinwehr  which 
called  forth  General  Lee's  strong  protest  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  War,  in  which  General  Lee  declared  that  the 
Confederate  States  would  be  compelled  to  regard  Pope 
and  Steinwehr  as  'robbers  and  murderers'  not  to  be 
treated,  if  captured,  as  prisoners  of  war."  Grant's  war- 
fare, his  wonderfully  kind  notes  at  Appomattox  plead- 
ing with  General  Lee  to  surrender  and  save  thousands 
of  lives  and  'hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  worth  of 
property  not  yet  destroyed,'  his  magnanamous  treat- 
ment of  Lee  on  his  surrender  at  Appomattox,  and  his 
refusal  while  President  to  support  illegal  and  unjust 
claims  of  carpet-bag  governors  in  the  South — all  tend 
to  mark  Grant  as  the  greatest  of  the  North's  leaders  of 
the  '60s. 

When  Lincoln  was  assassinated  great  effort  was  made 
to  place  the  responsibility  on  the  South ;  President  Davis 
was  charged  with  complicity,  but  no  proof  was  ever 
shown  that  any  Southern  man  had  aught  to  do  with  it. 
It  was  said  that  Wilkes  Booth,  the  assassin,  was  a  bitter 
Southern  sympathizer.  He  could  not  have  been  a  very 
"objectionable  partisan"  to  have  been  permitted  to  re- 
main all  winter  in  Washington,  with  his  brother  playing 
every  night  to  full  houses  of  officialdom,  including  mem- 
bers of  the  cabinet  and  the  President  himself — and 
Wilkes  Booth  himself  a  caller  on  the  President.  The 
more  plausible  story,  one  seldom  heard  or  printed,  is 
that  a  friend  of  Booth's  was  sentenced  to  be  executed, 
and  Lincoln  promised  Booth  a  pardon  but  failed  to 
grant  it,  and  the  friend  being  executed,  Booth  became 
so  embittered  he  took  the  President's  life. 

For  one  year  preceding  the  Federal  President's  tragic 
and  lamentable  death,  his  impeachment  had  been  freely 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  33 


discussed  by  party  leaders  and  predicted.  At  the  elec- 
tion in  November,  1864,  General  McClellan  received 
nearly  half  the  vote,  despite  the  usual  doubted-wisdom 
of  making  change  in  midst  of  war,  and  notwithstanding 
the  President  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  used 
his  influence  therewith  for  his  re-election.  Nearly  every 
member  of  the  cabinet  was  at  cross-purpose  with  the 
President,  some  of  them  referring  to  him  disrespectfully 
as  ' '  The  fool  at  the  other  end  of  the  avenue, ' '  and  ' '  The 
idiot  in  the  Whitehouse,"  etc.  But  with  his  death  a 
great  change  came  over  the  men  who  must  depend  for 
their  power  upon  the  future  of  the  party.  A  few  hours 
after  Stanton  had  spoken  in  derision  of  ' '  the  idiot  in  the 
whitehouse"  he  stood  at  the  bier  of  the  dead  President 
and  pronounced  an  eulogy  upon  the  1 1  Greatest  of  Ameri- 
cans," and  so  did  they  all  begin  a  systematic  acclaim  of 
the  greatness  of  Lincoln — as  the  only  hope  of  the  Re- 
publican party. 

Had  not  Lincoln  been  thus  heralded  as  "a  martyr,"  he 
would  have  passed  into  history  as  a  mediocre  man  with 
no  constructive  statesmanship  to  his  credit,  but  with  a 
war  which  cost  1,000,000  lives  of  his  countrymen  and  un- 
told suffering  to  secure  what  could  have  been  accom- 
plished by  real  statesmanship  without  hate.  But  the 
martyr  halo  was  adopted  as  essential  to  the  life  of  the 
Republican  party.  Lincoln's  death  charged  to  the 
South  gave  him  a  fame  nothing  else  would,  and  the  Re- 
publican party  an  influence  unequaled  in  the  North, 
and  a  lease  of  life  fanned  by  sectional  hate. 

That  Canard  About  Being  Friend  of  the  South 

The  statement  of  some  admirers  that  Lincoln  would 
have  been  the  friend  of  the  South  had  he  lived,  is  the 
wildest  guess  of  unthinking  men;  and  I  challenge  any 
one  to  resurrect  an  act  or  utterance  (well  authenticated) 


34  SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


to  justify  such  a  statement?  Where  was  his  friend- 
ship for  the  South  when  he  broke  his  pledge  to  Judge 
Campbell  and  Nelson?  I  have  quoted  utterances  and 
cited  acts  of  his  from  1850  to  1863  to  show  enmity  and 
vindictiveness  toward  the  South.  He  certainly  had 
ample  opportunity  at  Hampton  Roads,  and  all  through 
the  spring  of  '61  to  show  even  justice  for  the  South. 

Proof  That  Lincoln  Wanted  War 

Another  self-contradiction :  In  his  inaugural  message, 
Lincoln  said  to  the  South,  ' '  To  you  rests  the  responsibil- 
ity of  war;  I  will  not  assail  you" — he  had  admitted  the 
right  of  secession,  and  now  here  acknowledged  the  jus- 
tice, or  at  least  the  legality  of  the  South 's  position  and 
contention.  But  to  President  Davis'  commission  plead- 
ing for  withdrawal  of  the  garrison  at  Fort  Sumter,  to 
avoid  war,  he  denied  a  hearing  as  he  '  'could  not  re- 
cognize either  the  seceded  states  or  the  Confederacy," 
and  at  Hampton  Roads  he  reiterated  that  position — that 
he  could  not  admit  that  the  states  were  out  of  the  Union. 
But,  upon  the  Federal  occupation  of  Richmond  four 
years  later,  he  said  to  representative  Virginia  Confed- 
erates "You  can  come  back  into  the  Union  through  the 
same  hole  you  went  out  at — by  resolution  of  your  con- 
vention,"  thus  acknowledging  Virginia's  position  out- 
side of  the  Union.  After  saying  in  his  inaugural  1 1 1  will 
not  assail  you,"  he  spent  the  next  23  days,  March  15  to 
April  9,  in  organizing  four  distinct  expeditions  against 
Fort  Sumter  and  Fort  Pickens — neither  commander 
knowing  of  the  existence  of  the  others,  two  of  these  con- 
flicting on  the  ocean — and  one  of  the  Navy  Yard  Com- 
manders (Brooklyn)  instructed  "not  to  inform  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Navy."  (  Rec.  Reb.  Vol.  1).  His  manifest 
purpose  was,  while  publicly  deprecating  and  lamenting 
the  South 's  exercise  of  her  rights,  to  secretly  and  de- 
terminedly conspire  to  provoke  or  incite  war. 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  35 


Horton  (of  New  York)  in  his  Causes  of  the  War,  says: 
1  f  The  evening  after  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  surrender 
of  Fort  Sumter  to  the  South  Carolinians,  Lincoln  was 
particularly  cheerful,  and  gave  a  reception  at  the  White- 
house,  at  which  he  displayed  more  than  his  usual  viva- 
city;" and  two  days  later  he  issued  his  war  proclama- 
tion.— Horton 's  History  page  79. 

Does  not  the  testimony  of  history,  from  even  the  other 
side  of  the  line,  justify  the  conclusion  that  Abraham  Lin- 
coln has  been  greatly  misunderstood  and  over-estimated  ? 
Doesn't  it  show  that  he  wanted  and  maneuvered  for 
war  against  the  South — not  for  emancipation  of  the 
negro,  not  for  the  Union  which  he  had  helped  to  dis- 
solve; but  for  enmity  for  the  South,  and  against  State 
Sovereignty  which  allowed  the  States  to  control  their 
own  domestic  affairs  and  prosper;  for  hate  of  wealth 
and  refinement  of  which  he  was  want  to  boast  antipathy. 
As  Senator  Douglass,  that  able  Illinois  statesman  said, 
'"Lincoln  is  trying  to  bring  on  a  cruel  war  as  the  surest 
means  of  destroying  the  Union. ' '  He  certainly  did,  and 
by  frequent  suspensions  of  the  constitutional  rights  of 
the  citizen  and  limitations  of  the  government,  he  set  up 
a  centralized  power  at  Washington  which  was  rapidly 
approaching  a  dictatorship  when  his  tragic  death  came. 

The  one  plausible  plea  of  his  most  devoted  admirers, 
is  that  he  "fought  to  preserve  the  union",  but  that  is 
robbed  of  its  virtue  by  the  fact  that  he  first  fought  to 
disrupt  the  union,  and  after  disrupting  it,  admitted  with 
scores  of  other  leading  men  of  his  party  north,  even  him- 
self quoting  the  Republican  platform,  that  the  States 
had  the  right  to  secede  and  the  United  States  had  no 
authority  to  use  coercion  against  seceding  states — 
that  he  would  "not  assail  them,"  and  yet — his  every 
act  showed  that  he  wanted  war.  The  strongest  evidence 
of  the  truth  of  this  statement  is  found  in  Lincoln's  own 


36 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


instruction  to  General  Scott,  just  before  his  inaugura- 
tion as  President,  about  the  time  he  was  making  that 
Indianapolis  speech  defining  the  Republican  platform 
declaration  about  coercion  and  invasion.  According  to 
Shepherd 's  Life  of  Lincoln,  he  said : 

"Present  my  compliments  to  General  Scott,  and  tell 
him  confidentially  to  be  prepared  to  hold  or  retake  the 
forts  as  the  case  may  require,  after  my  inauguration " 
— just  a  few  days  before  his  "I  will  not  assail  you." 

Again,  later  when  Messrs.  Baldwin  and  Stuart,  Union 
men,  from  the  Virginia  convention,  then  delaying  se- 
cession, called  upon  Lincoln  to  urge  delay  in  action  that 
would  force  war,  Lincoln  asked — 

''What  is  to  become  of  my  revenue  in  New  York  if 
there  is  ten  per  cent  tariff  at  Charleston  V 1 

His  Relief  Squadrons  were  then  enroute  and  very 
near  Fort  Sumter  and  Fort  Pickens. 

Some  of  the  partisan  writers  claim  that  Lincoln's 
Relief  Squadron  was  not  to  fire  on  Fort  Sumter  or 
Charleston,  but  was  a  ruse  to  draw  the  first  fire  from 
the  southerners  to  make  them  the  aggressors.  But 
his  course  was  just  as  dishonest  and  more  reprehen- 
sible, showed  that  he  did  not  have  the  courage  to  do 
directly  (facing  opposition  from  his  own  section)  what 
he  sought  indirectly;  the  sacrifice  of  a  million  lives 
was  no  less  a  "grave  crime "  by  the  one  than  the  other 
method ;  he  accomplished  his  main  purpose  by  fooling  his 
own  people  with  the  cry  "The  flag  has  been  fired  on." 
His  desire  and  purpose  was  war;  but  he  knew  that 
Congress  nor  the  Northern  people  would  never  sanc- 
tion it.  Hence,  his  shrewd  trick  to  fool,  not  the  South, 
but  the  North — if  that  claim  is  correct.  But  the  posi- 
tive instructions  to  Major  Brown,  Lieutenant  Scott, 
Captain  Vogdes  and  Captain  Adams  at  Fort  Pickens, 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


37 


and  the  fact  that  that  expedition  did  by  force  take 
Fort  Pickens  (R.  of  R.  Vol.  I,  pp.  361,  376)  the  night 
before  Sumter  was  fired  on  with  the  entire  navy  under 
orders,  does  not  sustain  the  claim  of  merely  a  ''ruse'7 
at  Fort  Sumter — though  his  entire  secret  conspiracy 
was  very  clumsy. 

Lincoln's  Dual  Role  for  Peace  and  War 

Alexander  H.  Stephens  in  his  "War  Between  the 
States"  gives  Lincoln  credit  for  sincerity  in  his 
pledges  to  Judges  Campbell  and  Nelson  that  he  would 
order  Major  Anderson  to  withdraw  from  Fort  Sumter; 
but  at  that  time  (in  1868)  the  "Records  of  the  Rebel- 
lion" so-called  by  Congressional  Act,  had  not  been  pub- 
lished, and  the  dozens  of  orders  of  President  Lincoln 
organizing  the  four  separate  expeditions  to  Sumter  and 
Fort  Pickens,  were  officially  unknown  to  the  world  out- 
side of  the  coterie  at  Washington.  But  those  records 
disclose  that  for  all  the  23  days  Judges  Campbell  and 
Nelson  were  pleading  with  President  Lincoln  to  with- 
draw the  garrison  and  avoid  war,  and  while  the  Presi- 
dent was  repeating  every  day  or  two  his  assurance  that 
the  garrison  would  be  withdrawn,  he  was  issuing  orders 
for  the  preparation  of  vessels  and  commissions  to  Naval 
officers  to  get  together  men,  munitions  and  supplies  for 
the  relief  expeditions  to  Fort  Sumter  and  Fort  Pick- 
ens. There  were  a  dozen  or  so  of  such  orders  bearing 
Lincoln's  signature  from  March  15  to  April  9,  only  a 
few  of  which  I  will  specifically  cite :  The  conference 
of  the  Judges  with  the  President  and  Secretary  of 
State  begun  on  March  15th.  Judges  Campbell  and 
Nelson  were  assured  there  was  no  intention  to  rein- 
force Fort  Sumter — the  garrison  would  be  withdrawn 
within  ten  days;  but  on  March  29th,  Lincoln  ordered 
Secretary  of  Navy  Wells  to  get  ready  three  ships  at 


38  SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


Norfolk  navy  yard,  ready  to  go  to  sea  as  early  as  the 
6th.  (Rec.  of  Reb.  Vol.  I,  p.  226  and  240)  and  on  the 
30th  he  ordered  Captain  G.  V.  Fox  to  go  to  Brooklyn 
and  prepare  transports,  and  naming  vessels  for  an 
expedition  to  Fort  Sumter.  This  was  followed  by  sev- 
eral telegrams  to  Brooklyn  and  New  York  Navy  Yards 
ordering  vessels  prepared  for  Fort  Sumter  expedition. 
March  30th,  Seward  again  promised  Judges  Campbell 
and  Nelson  a  ' 'satisfactory  answer  on  April  1st." 
On  April  1st,  Seward  wrote  "  There  is  no  design  to 
reinforce  Sumter."  On  the  same  date  Lincoln  or- 
dered vessels  and  transports  ready  for  expedition  to 
Fort  Sumter.  (Vol.  I,  p.  229.)  Same  date  Lincoln 
ordered  Lieutenant  Scott  to  report  at  Brooklyn  navy 
yard  to  Captain  Fox  an  ex-navy  officer.  April  1st, 
Lincoln  ordered  Colonel  Brown,  then  Lieutenant  Porter, 
to  proceed  to  Pensacola,  Fla.,  and  "at  any  cost  or  risk" 
"establish  himself  in  the  harbor  at  Fort  Pickens,"  in 
spite  of  the  100  Confederate  guns  commanding  the  en- 
trance. Judge  Campbell  called  on  Seward  and  showed 
him  a  letter  he  had  written  President  Davis  stating 
Seward's  promises  with  Lincoln's  approval  whereupon 
Seward  said  to  Judge  Campbell  "By  the  time  that  let- 
ter reaches  its  destination  Major  Anderson  will  have 
been  ordered  to  evacuate  Fort  Sumter."  But  was  that 
true?  On  hearing  of  Colonel  Lamon's  visit  (as  spy) 
to  Major  Anderson,  Judge  Campbell,  becoming  suspi- 
cious, again  called  on  Seward  and  was  assured  with 
written  memoranda,  ' '  Faith  as  to  Sumter  fully  kept ; 
wait  and  see."  Then  there  were  other  orders  of  pre- 
paration for  the  four  expeditions  bearing  Lincoln's 
signature,  naming  vessels,  among  them  one  order  for 
the  Powhatten,  Pawnee  and  Harriet  Lane,  with  300 
men  and  12  months'  supplies  for  400  men,  for  Fort 
Sumter  under  Captain  Fox  (See  Rec.  of  Reb.  Vol.  I., 
pages  111  to  151,  229,  240,  360,  367,  371.) 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


39 


After  these  negotiations  and  promises  had  been  pro- 
gressing from  March  15th,  to  April  8th,  Lincoln  sent 
a  special  messenger  named  Chew  on  the  9th  with  a 
message  to  Governor  Pickens,  (Chew  reading  the  no- 
tice to  Governor  Pickens)  that  ' 'he  would  supply  Fort 
Sumter  with  provisions,  and  if  there  was  no  opposition 
to  that  he  would  not  further  reinforce  the  fort,  (Gregg's 
History)  without  further  notice,"  which  was  equiva- 
lent to  a  notice  that  he  would,  in  accord  with  another 
previous  declaration,  "supply  Fort  Sumter,  peacefully 
if  he  could,  forcefully  if  necessary." 

When  the  perfidy  was  discovered  at  Montgomery, 
orders  were  issued  to  not  await  the  arrival  of  the  fleet 
inside,  but  to  demand  immediate  surrender,  and  with 
due  regard  for  human  life  and  every  effort  to  avoid  a 
conflict,  if  evacuation  was  still  refused  to  demolish  the 
fort. 

Assumed  Greater  Powers  Than  a  King 

This  is  not  written  or  uttered  in  any  spirit  of  animos- 
ity or  vindictiveness  but  as  an  effort  to  preserve  the 
truth  of  history.  Abraham  Lincoln  made  his  own 
record ;  and,  if  he  were  honest  in  it,  it  is  presumed  that 
he  would  today  be  proud  of  it,  and  certainly  his  ad- 
mirers are.  So,  the  question  then  is  The  Truth.  While 
we  are  not  objecting  to  the  adulation  of  Lincoln  in  the 
North,  we  do  object  to  certain  statements  being  pre- 
sented in  the  South  as  truth.  The  truth  will  not  per- 
mit his  acceptance  in  the  South  as  a  model  of  states- 
manship, when  the  misrepresentation  of  his  course  as 
Right  constitute  a  serious  reflection  on  our  fathers 
whom  we  are  sure  were  guided  by  principles  of  Right 
and  Justice.  Neither  Davis  or  Lee,  nor  one  of  our 
statesmen  or  soldiers  of  the  South  ever  contended  for 
violation  of  the  Constitution  or  federal  law;  in  all  the 
bitter  strife  the  South  was  not  so  charged;  but  the 


40 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


Federal  authorities  from  President  down  were  guilty: 
President  Lincoln  in  conspiring  to  bring  on  war  without 
the  consent  of  Congress;  ordering  armed  ships  to  take 
Forts  Sumter  and  Pickens,  his  calling  for  75,000  volun- 
teers ;  his  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  with- 
out authority  of  Congress;  his  imprisonment  of  hun- 
dreds of  men  throughout  the  North  on  mere  suspicion 
of  sympathy  with  the  South.  His  Secretary  of  State 
(Seward)  boasting  of  this  new  power  to  the  British 
Minister  at  Washington,  Lord  Lyons,  visiting  him, 
said:  "I  can  touch  this  bell  and  order  the  arrest 
of  any  prominent  man  in  Ohio  and  throw  him  in 
prison,  and  I  can  touch  the  bell  and  have  thrown  in 
prison  a  state  official  of  New  York,  and  no  power  can 
intervene  except  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
Can  the  Queen  of  England  do  more,  my  lord?"  Such 
was  the  extent  of  the  subversion  of  the  Constitution 
by  the  usurpers.  It  was  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Lin- 
coln's spokesman  in  the  peace  conference  called  early 
in  1861  to  try  to  avoid  war,  who  declared  that  1  'the 
election  of  Lincoln  empowered  him,  and  his  party  to 
enforce  their  theories  on  the  country,  regardless  of  the 
constitution,  the  law  or  rights  of  the  states,  or  the  de- 
cisions of  the  Supreme  Court  (Stephens  II,  43-50)  and 
that  Lincoln  would  do  so" — and  he  did. 

Five  days  before  Lincoln  was  inaugurated,  Congress 
passed  a  resolution  pronouncing  the  theories  promul- 
gated by  Lincoln  and  Chase  as  violative  of  the  consti- 
tution. The  Congress  just  elected,  with  Lincoln,  was 
known  to  be  even  more  favorable  to  the  constitution; 
and  Lincoln,  knowing  this,  would  not  convene  Con- 
gress until  he  had  succeeded  in  inaugurating  war. 

Lincoln,  prompted  by  the  stronger  minds  of  his  party 
managers,  perhaps  more  than  by  his  own  will  and 
judgment,  (for  his  own  will  was  as  varying  as  the 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


41 


winds)  placed  his  official  seal  upon  proposals  and 
edicts  which  transformed  absolutely  in  a  month  or  two 
the  Sovereignty  of  the  States  of  the  Federation  of  the 
founders  into  a  Nation  with  increased  and  ever-since- 
increasing  powers  in  the  centralized  government  at 
"Washington. 

Benjamin  F.  Wade,  U.  S.  Senator  from  Ohio,  and 
prominent  in  several  Republican  administrations,  said 
in  1861:  "Who  is  to  be  the  final  arbiter  (as  to  seces- 
sion) ?  The  Federal  Government  or  the  State?  Why, 
to  yield  the  right  of  the  State  to  protect  its  own  citi- 
zens, would  consolidate  this  government  into  a  miser- 
able despotism."  This  is  just  what  was  done  by  Presi- 
dent Lincoln's  despotic  overthrow  of  the  constitution, 
a  fundamental  and  sacred  law  which  had  been  respected 
and  revered  for  a  hundred  years. 

The  Washington  Post  of  August  14,  1906,  said:  "Let 
us  be  frank  about  it.  The  day  the  people  of  the  North 
responded  to  Abraham  Lincoln's  call  for  troops  to 
coerce  the  Sovereign  States,  that  day  the  Republic 
died,  and  the  Nation  was  born." 

What  Was  the  Real  Motive? 

Now,  after  viewing  Mr.  Lincoln's  acts  from  the  sev- 
eral angles,  one  is  prompted  to  ask  "Why  did  he  cause 
the  war?"  Recalling  his  expressed  conflicting  opinions 
on  the  slavery  question;  his  influence  against  the  Crit- 
tenden Compromise,  urging  the  Republicans  to  defeat 
it;  the  violent  speech  of  Chase  his  spokesman  in  the 
Peace  Conference,  and  his  opposition  to  several  other 
peace  overtures  including  the  two  special  commissions 
from  President  Jefferson  Davis — the  idea  that  he 
"yearned  for  peace"  falls  flat.  When  his  own  people 
of  the  Northern  states  were  so  strongly  opposed  to  his 
policy  that  he  dared  not  submit  the  issues  to  Congress, 


42 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


or  (as  petitioned)  to  a  vote  of  the  Northern  states,  his 
friends  cannot  claim  that  he  was  acting  in  response  to 
a  public  demand.  Abolitionists  supposed,  and  the 
negroes  were  taught,  that  freedom  of  the  negro  was 
the  controling  motive;  but  this  view  is  contradicted  by 
declarations  that  he  had  no  power  under  the  constitu- 
tion to  free  them,  and  "  certainly  had  no  desire  to  do 
so,"  and  later  "if  he  could  preserve  the  Union  by  per- 
petuating slavery  he  would  do  so."  How  could  he 
claim  "preservation  of  the  Union"  as  his  motive  when 
his  own  bitter  campaign  and  the  animosity  and  hostility 
therein  engendered  was  the  main  cause  of  the  disolution 
of  the  Union?  The  Crittenden  resolutions  could  have 
preserved  the  Union;  the  Peace  Conference  was  de- 
signed to  do  so ;  recognition  and  negotiation  with  Presi- 
dent Davis'  commission  to  avoid  collision  at  Fort  Sum- 
ter might  have  restored  the  Union — at  least  would  have 
preserved  the  peace  he  claimed  his  soul  was  "yearning 
for";  even  the  commission  which  met  him  and  Seward 
at  Hampton  Roades  in  1864  could  have  restored  peace 
and  probably  the  Union  had  he  treated  with  them. 
But  all  these  efforts  he  strenuously  opposed  and  his 
followers  fought.  So,  what  could  have  been  the  incen- 
tive, the  prime  motive  which  actuated  him  in  forcing 
the  war — unless  it  was  his  own  inborn  hostility  to  the 
South  and  Southern  people? 

We  repeat  we  entertain  no  bitterness  for  the  Fed- 
eral soldier,  and  naught  but  respect  for  their  descend- 
ants, but  we  do  insist  upon  believing  in  the  virtue,  the 
wisdom  and  the  patriotism  of  our  fathers  who  con- 
tended ably  and  valiantly  fought  for  the  preservation 
of  the  principles  of  States  Sovereignty  won  from  Eng- 
land in  '76  and  by  the  Revolutionary  fathers  estab- 
lished in  our  constitution — principles  they  believed 
right,  knew  were  right,  were  right. 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  43 


To  those  Southerners  (if  there  be  any)  who  would 
apologize  for  the  part  of  the  South  in  the  War,  I  will 
quote  from  Mr.  Davis  himself :  ' '  Let  none  of  the  surviv- 
ors of  these  men  offer  in  their  behalf  the  penetential 
plea  that  they  'believed'  they  were  right.  Be  it  ours  to 
transmit  to  posterity  our  unequivocal  confidence  in  the 
righteousness  of  the  cause  for  which  these  men  died/' 

Contrast  With  Jefferson  Davis'  Administration 

But  this  was  to  be  a  discussion  of  both  Davis  and 
Lincoln,  the  two  presidents  of  the  war  period  of  the 
'60s.  so  we  will  revert  to  the  Confederate  President. 

Jefferson  Davis  was  respected  and  revered  as  a 
knightly  gentleman  and  gallant  soldier,  an  able  states- 
man, a  courageous  and  uncompromising  defender  of 
the  constitution,  contending  for  the  preservation  of  the 
union  while  others  were  lighting  the  fires  of  destruc- 
tion, a  wise  and  unselfish  organizer  and  administrator 
of  the  Confederacy,  and  yet  at  its  fall  he  patiently  and 
heroically  bore  the  brunt  of  the  hate  for  the  South; 
suffering  in  prison  cell  and  shackles,  the  victim  of  con- 
centrated partisan  animosity. 

Jefferson  Davis  contributed  more  and  suffered  more 
than  any  other  man  for  the  cause  whose  heroes  we 
now  honor  and  revere.  When  Richmond  fell  it  was 
upon  Jefferson  Davis  the  full  force  of  Northern  ven- 
geance fell.  Why?  Because,  as  I  have  said,  Presi- 
dent Davis  was  the  trusted  leader,  the  guiding  hand 
of  the  Confederacy,  contributing  most  to  its  structure, 
and  by  his  able  statesmanship  as  president  and  gener- 
alship as  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  Army,  almost 
winning  victory  in  the  first  two  years  of  the  war. 

Jefferson  Davis  was  the  son  of  Samuel  Davis,  a  hero 
of  the  Revolution,  was  born  in  Kentucky  1808,  and 
soon  after  with  his  father  moved  to  Mississippi,  which 


44  SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


was  his  home  the  greater  part  of  his  eventful  life. 
After  having  received  an  academic  education,  he  went 
to  Transylvania  College  in  Kentucky,  and  while  closing 
a  successful  term  there  was  appointed  by  President 
Monroe  to  a  cadetship  in  West  Point  Military  Academy. 
There  he  also  won  high  honors,  graduating  in  1828  at 
the  age  of  20  years. 

For  seven  years  he  served  in  the  United  States  army 
as  a  lieutenant,  and  for  distinguished  bravery  in  the 
Black  Hawk  War,  he  was  commissioned  First  Lieu- 
tenant of  Dragoons  in  1835.  Soon  thereafter  he  resigned 
his  commission  and  returned  to  Mississippi  to  enjoy 
life  on  his  plantation.  However,  the  people  of  his  dis- 
trict, recognizing  his  abilities,  manifested  their  sound 
judgment  in  electing  him  to  Congress,  where  he  became 
prominent  as  a  participant  in  all  debates  upon  the 
great  questions  of  the  day.  He  became  especially  in- 
terested in  the  pending  trouble  with  Mexico,  and  re- 
signed his  seat  in  Congress  to  enter  the  army  as  a  de- 
fender of  his  country.  Few  have  been  the  instances, 
indeed,  when  patriotism  is  manifested  by  a  man  resign- 
ing a  seat  in  Congress  to  enter  the  fighting  ranks.  But 
that  was  Jefferson  Davis.  He  fought  through  the 
Mexican  War,  displaying  marked  gallantry  at  the 
Battle  of  Monterey.  Just  here  I  recall  when  General 
Zachary  Taylor  came  to  acknowledge  his  merit  and  pay 
him  honor.  Davis  had  married  General  Taylor's  daugh- 
ter, under  parental  objection,  the  General  saying  to 
his  daughter  that  ' '  Jeff  was  only  a  soldier. ' '  But  after 
the  Battle  of  Buena  Vista,  where  Colonel  Davis  saved 
the  day  for  the  Americans,  the  general  sent  for  Davis 
and,  taking  him  by  the  hand,  said,  "I  have  concluded 
that  my  daughter  is  a  better  judge  of  men  than  I. ' ' 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  45 


Davis*  Adherence  to  Constitution  in  Declining  Honor 

It  was  at  the  battle  of  Buena  Yista  where  Colonel 
Davis  a  second  time  distinguished  himself,  and  though 
wounded,  and  attacked  by  a  superior  force  of  5000  regu- 
lars, and  for  a  long  time  unprotected,  he  formed  his 
regiment  into  the  form  of  a  V,  maintained  his  ground 
and  repelled  for  the  last  time  the  hosts  of  Mexico. 
Thus  upon  the  field  of  battle,  Jefferson  Davis  proved 
that  he  was  not  only  a  scholar  and  a  statesman,  not  a 
mere  pampered  son  of  wealth,  but  a  soldier  and  a  suc- 
cessful defender  of  his  country's  flag.  His  V  forma- 
tion and  manner  of  heroic  attack  against  overwhelming 
numbers  was  adopted  by  Collin  Campbell  in  India  and 
applauded  in  England.  For  Colonel  Davis'  bravery 
and  successful  conduct  of  his  part  of  the  campaign 
against  Mexico,  President  Polk  tendered  him  a  com- 
mission as  Brigadier  General,  but  Colonel  Davis  de- 
clined the  honor  upon  the  ground  that  the  president 
was  not  authorized  by  the  constitution  to  make  the  ap- 
pointment. Here  again  we  have  the  consistent  and 
unselfish  adherent  to  the  constitution.  Though  the 
president's  appointment  was  confirmed  by  both  Houses 
of  Congress  Colonel  Davis  again  refused  to  accept  an 
honor  which  he  contended  was  unauthorized  by  the 
federal  constitution,  that  right  and  authority  being  in- 
vested with  the  state.  There  was  no  question  of  slavery 
in  this,  but  it  was  the  same  strict  interpretation  of  the 
constitution  which  led  him  to  leadership  in  opposition 
to  the  marked  disregard  for  that  fundamental  law  by 
the  northern  representatives  and  members  of  the  federal 
government  in  the  years  immediately  preceding  and 
following  Lincoln's  election. 

Constructive  Statesmanship  in  Cabinet 

In  1852  Colonel  Davis  was  called  to  President 
Pierce's  cabinet  as  Secretary  of  War,  where  he  dis- 


46 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


played  great  constructive  statesmanship.   While  in  that 
position  he  laid  the  foundation  for  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitute, established  new  posts  on  the  frontier,  planned 
the  trade  routes  across  the  western  territories  to  the 
Pacific,  and  was  the  first  to  propose  a  transconti- 
nental    railway     connecting      the      Atlantic  and 
Pacific,  contributing  greatly  to  the  development  of  the 
West,  had  extensions  made  to  the  Capitol  building,  and 
marked  improvements  in  army  acoutrements  and  am- 
munitions, and,  for  an  improvement   in   a  revolver, 
Colt's  Armory  made  and  presented  him  with  a  very 
handsome  revolver  with  the  improvement  and  suitably 
engraved  "To  a  brother  inventor."    He  was  the  first 
to  suggest  camels  for  transportation  of  military  supplies 
through  the  barren  West,  where  he  strengthend  forts 
difficult  to  reach,  and  was  first  to  suggest  the  purchase 
of  Panama  Canal  zone.    He  planned  closer  relations 
with  China  and  Japan,  and  South  Africa.   He  proposed 
and  was  responsible  for  the  new  Senate  Hall  and  the 
House  of  Representatives.    He  sent  Geo.  D.  McClellon 
to  the  Crimea  to  study  British  and  Russian  military 
tactics;  he  appointed  Robert  E.  Lee  superintendent  of 
West  Point,  and  advanced  Albert  Sidney  Johnston  to 
important  posts.    He  was  nominated  for  President  by 
Massachusetts  men  in  1860,  but  refused  to  permit  his 
name  to  be  presented  to  the   Charleston  convention. 
He  stood  consistently  and  firmly  for  what  Lincoln 
preached  but  did  not  practice — not  to  overthrow  the 
constitution,  but  to  overthrow  the  men  who  perverted 
the  constitution.    When  Mr.  Davis   as  Secretary  of 
War  was  contending  for  an  increase  in  the  army  for 
the  defense  of  the  west  other  leaders  were  calling  it  a 
desert  unfit  for  human  habitation.     The  people  of 
every  state  west  of  the  Mississippi  River  should  honor 
Jefferson  Davis  for  the  great  service  he  rendered 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  47 


them  both  in  war  and  in  peace  during  the  formative 
period  of  their  history.  He  was  twice  elected  United 
States  Senator,  and  his  services  were  characterized 
by  great  ability,  courage  and  fidelity,  to  the  consti- 
tution; and  as  disregard  for  that  instrument  marked 
the  course  of  senators  and  others  _iigh  in  government, 
his  warning  voice  was  to  be  heard,  "Strict  interpreta- 
tion and  obedience  to  the  mandates  of  that  funda- 
mental law  must  be  the  price  of  Union  and  stability 
of  the  government." 

Loving  Union,  Sounds  Warning 

The  unfortunate  division  of  the  Democratic  party  in 
1860  with  two  electoral  tickets  in  the  field  dividing 
the  vote,  and  even  a  fourth  at  the  general  election  al- 
lowed Lincoln  to  win  the  presidency  on  a  minority  of 
the  popular  vote,  though  securing  the  electoral  vote 
of  the  northern  states.  That  partisan  vote  north  to- 
gether with  the  bitterness  which  characterized  Lincoln's 
campaign  indicated  to  the  South  the  hostility  which 
might  be  expected  from  the  incoming  administration. 
Then  came  talk  of  secession,  the  withdrawing  from  the 
Union  of  the  Southern  States.  While  leaders  of  the  new 
Republican  party  boldly  declared  their  hostility  to  the 
South,  Jefferson  Davis,  then  in  the  Senate  his  second 
term,  loved  the  Union  and  frequently  so  expressed  him- 
self. To  Judge  Campbell  with  whom  he  had  served  in 
President  Pierce 's  cabinet,  he  said :  "I  love  the  old 
Union ;  my  father  died  for  it ;  but  unless  you  have  been 
in  the  South,  you  cannot  begin  to  estimate  the  bitter- 
ness already  engendered  by  partisonship  in  the  North." 
He  so  strongly  adhered  to  the  Union,  preferring  to 
contend  there  for  their  rights,  that  some  of  the  Southern 
leaders  had  ceased  to  confer  with  him  upon  the  turbu- 
lent issues.  In  his  frequent  debates  upon  the  issues 


48 


i 

SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


of  the  day,  he  expressed  hope  that  peaceful  means 
would  prevail,  and  that  all  differences  would  be  ad- 
justed inside  the  union.  But  his  counsels  could  not 
prevail  against  such  aggressiveness  and  bitter  enmity 
for  the  South  as  was  reflected  by  Senator  Zach  Chand- 
ler in  his  telegram  to  his  Governor  on  assembling  of  the 
Peace  Conference,  asking  him  to  ' 1  Send  some  men  down 
here  with  the  fighting  spirit ;  there  is  decidedly  too 
much  peace  talk.  Without  a  little  blood-letting  this 
Union  will  not,  in  my  opinion,  be  worth  a  curse." 

Judge  George  L.  Christian,  of  Richmond,  Va.,  in  a 
very  able  paper  on  the  "  Cause  of  the  war  and  the  Ag- 
gressor," says:  4 'The  Southern  States  had  not  only  the 
right  to  secede,  but  just  cause  for  withdrawing  from 
the  federation ;  and  in  the  exercise  of  that  right  was 
forced  to  fight  in  defense  of  home  and  country;"  and 
asks  "Why  should  not  our  children  and  their  children 
know  the  truth?" 

The  view  of  this  representative  Southerner  is  also 
the  view  of  many  of  the  leading  men  of  the  North. 
Dozens  of  editorials  of  northern  newspapers  could  be 
quoted,  but  will  quote  only  one  here :  The  Albany, 
New  York  Argus  said:  "We  sympathize  with  and  jus- 
tify the  South;  their  rights  have  been  invaded,  consti- 
tution disregarded,  their  feelings  insulted,  interests  and 
honor  assailed — and  if  we  deemed  it  certain  that  the 
animus  of  the  Republicans  could  be  carried  into  the 
Federal  administration  all  instincts  of  self-respect  and 
manhood  would  impel  them  to  separation  from  the 
Union,  and  we  would  applaud  and  wish  them  God- 
speed." Similar  views  were  expressed  by  other  New 
York  and  eastern  papers,  and  by  Judge  Jeremiah  Black 
of  Pennsylvania,  Judge  Williams,  noted  writer  of 
Massachusetts,  Josiah  Quincy,  Horace  Greeley,  and  Gen- 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


49 


eral  Don  Piet,  and  we  might  add  Abraham  Lincoln,  if 
that  counts. 

Mr.  Davis  wrote  to  ex-President  Pearce  on  January 
20,  1861:  "  Those  who  have  driven  the  states  to  seces- 
sion threatened  to  deprive  them  of  the  right  to  require 
that  their  government  shall  rest  upon  the  consent  of 
the  governed,  to  substitute  foreign  force  for  domestic 
support,  to  reduce  the  State  to  the  condition  from  which 
the  colonies  rose,"  through  revolution  against  foreign 
power. 

His  Farewell  to  Associates  in  Senate 

In  Senator  Davis'  famous  address  to  the  Senate 
January  21,  1861  (day  after  writing  the  letter  to 
Pearce),  bidding  farewell  to  the  members  with  whom 
he  had  so  long  served,  in  closing  an  able  presentation 
of  the  position  and  grievances  of  the  South,  differences 
in  interpretation  of  the  constitution  of  the  Fathers  of 
the  Republic,  he  said:  4 'Then,  Senators,  we  recur  to 
the  compact  which  binds  us  together;  we  recur  to  the 
principles  upon  which  our  government  was  founded, 
and  when  you  deny  them,  and  when  you  deny  us  the 
right  to  withdraw  from  a  government  which  thus  sub- 
verted, threatens  to  be  the  destruction  of  our  rights, 
we  but  tread  the  path  of  our  fathers  when  we  proclaim 
our  independence  and  take  the  hazard.  This  is  done, 
not  in  hostility  to  others,  not  to  injure  any  section  of 
the  country,  not  even  for  our  own  pecuniary  benefit, 
but  for  the  high  and  solemn  motive  of  defending  and 
protecting  the  rights  we  inherited,  and  which  it  is  our 
duty  to  transmit  unshorn  to  our  children." 

Then,  again,  he  showed  the  calm  dispassionate  spirit 
of  the  Christian  statesman  when  he  said :  ' '  In  the  course 
of  my  service  here,  I  see  around  me  some  with  whom  I 
have  served  long.    There  may  have  been  points  of  col- 


50 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


lision,  but  whatever  there  has  been  of  offense  to  me, 
I  leave  here;  I  carry  with  me  no  hostile  remembrance. 
Whatever  of  offense  I  have  given,  which  has  not  been 
redressed,  or  for  which  satisfaction  has  not  been  de- 
manded, I  have,  Senators,  in  this  hour  of  parting,  to 
offer  my  apology  for  any  pain  which  in  the  heat  of 
discussion,  I  have  inflicted.  I  go  hence  unincumbered 
of  the  remembrance  of  any  injury  received  and  hav- 
ing discharged  the  duty  of  making  the  only  reparation 
in  my  power  for  any  injury  offered."  He  thus  left 
the  Senate  with  a  heavy  heart  although  pursuing  the 
course  which  his  conscience  dictated  to  him  was  de- 
manded. 

Imbued  with  the  doctrine  of  States  Rights,  the  sover 
eignty  of  the  states  which  was  reserved  when  the  con- 
stitution was  framed;  the  endorsement  of  this  principle 
by  nearly  every  man  north  or  south,  supported  by  the 
fact  that  all  the  New  England  States  at  Concord  in 
1814  had  threatened  to  exercise  that  right  of  with- 
drawal from  the  Union — he  felt  that  he  was  exercising 
a  clear  right  though  painful,  in  resigning  to  follow  his 
state  which  had  voted  secession.  So,  with  sorrowing 
heart  he  followed  Conviction  and  Right. 

Peaceful  Organization  of  Confederacy 

By  the  time  Mr.  Davis  reached  Mississippi,  his  state, 
recognizing  his  great  military  ability,  as  displayed  in 
the  Black  Hawk  and  Mexican  wars,  had  already  elected 
him  General  commanding  and  authorized  him  to  or- 
ganize the  State  Militia,  and  while  engaged  in  that  task 
the  Confederate  Convention  at  Montgomery  elected  him 
President  of  the  Confederate  States.  He  entered  upon 
that  supreme  responsibility  and  from  chaos  soon  had 
perfected  a  complete  government  for  the  new  republic 
of  the  Confederate  States  of  America. 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


51 


President  Davis  was  for  peace.  The  Confederate 
government  was  organized  without  any  incident  of  un- 
peaceful  nature,  a  constitution  was  adopted,  a  section 
declaring  against  the  importation  of  slaves;  not  a  gun 
was  fired ;  and  there  would  have  been  no  war,  had  not 
Lincoln's  government  forced  it  by  his  unconstitutional 
and  beligerent  attitude  as  to  Fort  Sumter.  To  the 
Confederate  commission  sent  to  Washington  by  Presi- 
dent Davis  to  beseech  the  Washington  government  in 
the  interest  of  peace,  to  withdraw  the  U.  S.  garrison 
from  Fort  Sumter,  which  was  in  South  Carolina  terri- 
tory, President  Lincoln  for  23  days  promised  it  would 
be  done,  and  yet  instead  of  ordering  Major  Anderson 
to  withdraw  from  Fort  Sumter,  (See  Lincoln's  orders 
in  Rec.  of  Reb.  Vol.  I,  pages  120  to  376)  ordered  him  to 
hold  the  fort,  that  a  fleet  of  war  vessels  with  reinforce- 
ments was  enroute,  President  Lincoln  having  previous- 
ly announced  .that  he  would  hold  the  southern  forts  and 
collect  tax  on  imports  through  the  ports  of  the  South. 

Jefferson  Davis  on  April  7th,  while  awaiting  the  re- 
sult of  his  commission  to  Washington,  proposing  to 
President  Lincoln  a  peaceful  adjustment  of  differences, 
a  division  of  forts  and  other  properties,  and  an  appor- 
tionment of  the  public  debt,  that  would  avoid  war, 
said :  1  '  With  the  Lincoln  administration  rests  the  re- 
sponsibility of  precipitating  a  collision  and  the  fearful 
evils  of  ^  cruel  war." 

Taking  Fort  Sumter  a  Defense  Move 

Having  exhausted  every  effort  to  prevent  war,  when 
news  came  that  the  armed  fleet  with  reinforcements 
was  enroute,  and  just  before  they  would  have  arrived  in 
South  Carolina  waters,  and  after  President  Lincoln's 
special  messenger  (Ch<ew)  handed  Governor  Pickens 
written  notice  that  he  would  reinforce  the  fort,  Presi- 


52 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


dent  Davis  authorized  a  demand  for  the  immediate  sur- 
render of  the  Port.  Upon  Anderson's  refusal,  Sec- 
retary of  War  Leroy  P.  Walker  ordered  General  Beau- 
regard who  was  in  charge  of  an  improvised  force  of 
volunteer  South  Carolinians  to  demand  immediate  evac- 
uation of  the  fort,  and,  on  refusal,  fire  on  the  fort  and  re- 
duce it.  How  promptly  and  effectually  that  order  was 
obeyed,  is  a  matter  of  history.  And  the  fact  remains, 
also,  that  it  was  the  threatened  invasion  by  an  armed 
enemy  fleet  which  called  for  the  order.  The  fleet  got 
within  sight  or  hearing  of  Fort  Sumter  and  after  the 
battle  turned  about  and  returned.  Major  Anderson 
was  permitted  to  return  north  with  his  troops.  Simul- 
taneously almost  with  the  sending  of  the  armed  fleet, 
came  the  destruction  of  the  Fort  at  Harper's  Ferry  in 
Virginia  by  the  retiring  U.  S.  troops,  and  the  burning 
of  shipping  and  destroying  of  the  garrison  at  Nor- 
folk, Va.,  as  U.  S.  troops  abandoned  that  place.  Thus 
was  the  war  begun,  as  had  been  planned,  no  doubt,  by 
the  Zach  Chandlers,  Thad  Stevens,  Summers,  Sewards 
and  Lincoln — a  direct  result  of  the  election  of  President 
Lincoln. 

The  First  Gun  of  the  War 

Northern  writers  usually  state  that  1  'the  shot  at  Fort 
Sumter  was  the  first  gun  of  the  war."  But,  in  fact,  the 
first  gun  of  the  war  was  the  one  placed  on  the  trans- 
port by  order  of  President  Lincoln  bound  for  Fort  Sum- 
ter; but  the  "shot  which  was  heard  round  the  world" 
was  the  one  fired  at  Fort  Sumter  in  home  defense. 
Going  back  a  year,  it  might  be  said  that  the  first  gun 
of  the  war  was  the  one  (or  score)  furnished  by  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  for  John  Brown's  proposed  insurrec- 
tionary raid  into  Virginia,  and  referred  to  by  northern 
papers  as  " Beecher 's  Bibles." 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


53 


President  Davis  occupied  a  most  trying  position  at 
the  head  of  the  new  government.  Though  his  success 
in  organizing  it  had  been  marked,  there  grew  up  differ- 
ences of  opinion  as  to  this  policy  or  that  appointment 
in  the  army;  and  there  are  some  who  blame  the  presi- 
dent for  much  of  the  failure.  But  no  man  could  have 
accomplished  more ;  no  man  could  have  guided  the 
Confederacy  to  victory  against  such  fearful  odds  in 
men  and  resources.  It  is  a  matter  of  congratulation 
that  the  Southern  arms  won  almost  every  battle  for  the 
first  two  years,  with  odds  of  3  to  1  against  the  South 
when  our  ports  were  blockaded  and  supplies  cut  off, 
and  the  odds  were  increased  by  importations  for  the 
army  from  Europe,  to  near  six  to  one,  the  official 
figures  showing  the  total  of  all  enlistment  to  be  2,870,- 
000  to  643,000  with  the  greater  difference  the  last  two 
years. 

Results  Show  Military  Genius  and  Heroism 

In  view  of  this  record  it  can  be  truly  said  that 
Jefferson  Davis'  administration  was  a  great  success 
though  our  armies  were  so  overwhelmingly  outnum- 
bered. Our  forces  under  Lee,  Jackson,  the  Johnstons, 
and  associates,  fought  bravely  and  unfalteringly,  while 
the  northern  armies  were  worn  out  and  defeated,  and 
their  commanders  frequently  changed  because  of  their 
defeat.  The  Confederates  captured  Federals  faster 
than  the  South  could  prepare  prisons  for  them.  By 
the  way,  it  would  not  be  amiss  just  here  to  say  that  the 
Confederates  killed,  wounded,  and  captured  a  man-and- 
a-half  for  every  man  enlisted  in  the  southern  army; 
while  the  casualties  in  the  Confederate  army  were  less 
than  a  quarter-of-a-man  to  each  Federal  soldier. 
Doesn't  that  speak  volumes  for  the  bravery  and  effi- 
ciency of  the  army  under  Jefferson  Davis? — the  great- 
est military  achievement  of  the  age. 


54  SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


Another  Myth  Exploded 

President  Davis  has  been  criticised  for  many  things, 
unjustly  as  investigation  would  prove.    For  instance, 
he  has  been  criticised  for  "not  accepting  the  proposal 
of  President  Lincoln  for  ending  the  war,"  and  it  has 
been  even  stated   by  these  uninformed  critics  that 
President  Lincoln  proposed  to  "concede  the  slaves  if 
the  South  would  come  back  into  the  Union,"  and  that 
"Lincoln  proposed  to  pay  $400,000,000  for  the  slaves, 
and  Davis  refused."    That  is  all  without  any  founda- 
tion.   Our  own  Governor  Lubbock  who  was  at  the  time 
on  President  Davis'  personal  staff,  conversed  with  Vice- 
President  Stephens,  R.  M.  T.  Hunter  and  Judge  Camp- 
bell, the  commissioners  sent  by  President  Davis  to  meet 
President  Lincoln  and  his  Secretary  of  State  on  their 
vessel  in  Hampton  Roads  off  Fortress  Monroe,  and  those 
gentlemen  said,  and  in  their  reports  to  President  Davis 
reported,  that  no  proposal  of  any  terms  were  submitted 
by  either  side ;  but  that  the  main  result  of  the  conference 
was  that  "President  Lincoln  gave  them  to  understand 
that  he  could  not  treat  with  the  Confederate  States; 
and  Alexander  H.  Stephens  in  his  "War  Between  the 
States"  Vol.  II,  also  says  Lincoln  stated  he  could  not 
make  any  treaty  or  agreement  with  the  representatives 
of  the  states  separately,  as  that  would  be  a  recognition  of 
their  separate  government,  and  that  he  would  only  ac- 
cept their  "unconditional  surrender"  and  treat  with 
them  "after  they  had  returned  into  the  Union" — which, 
in  effect,  would  have  been  for  the  Southerners  to  have 
acknowledged  themselves  and  the  states  to  be  "rebels" 
with  whatever  penalties  the  victors  might  see  fit  to  in- 
flict, which  they  could  not  at  all  consider.  President 
Lincoln's  own  report  to  Congress  says  "no  terms  were 
submitted  by  either  side."    Lubbock  in  his  memoirs, 
from  which  I  get  his  version,  says  that  by  fighting  on, 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


55 


the  South  obtained  in  the  surrender  of  Lee  to  Grant  far 
better  terms  and  fairer  recognition  than  could  have  been 
had  from  Lincoln. 

Judge  John  H.  Reagan  also  published  a  full  statement 
in  accord  with  these  facts,  in  which  he  said :  ' 1  These  re- 
ports have  been  repeated  by  some  citizens  of  ac- 
knowledged ability  and  repute,  who  believed  them,  but  in 
them  there  was  no  truth."  The  purpose  of  the  origina- 
tors 1 '  was  to  raise  Lincoln  and  lower  Davis  in  the  public 
estimation,  by  showing  that  President  Davis  could  have 
secured  acceptable  terms  and  $400,000,000  in  payment 
for  slaves;  but,  Judge  Reagan  says,  "the  report  of  the 
commissioners  sent  to  Hampton  Roads  by  President 
Davis  signed  by  Messrs.  Stephens,  Hunter  and  Campbell, 
reported  to  the  contrary,  and  state  that  no  terms  at  all 
were  proposed  by  Lincoln,  and  that  no  terms  could  have 
been  considered  except  by  unconditional  surrender." 
Judge  Reagan  says  that  the  only  suggestion  of  compensa- 
tion he  ever  heard  of  as  coming  from  Lincoln  was  that 
the  border  states  provide  for  emancipation  with  compen- 
sation, (this  was  a  year  prior  to  Lincoln's  proclamation 
of  emancipation  exempting  the  border  states  from  its 
operation)  which  was  not  accepted  by  the  border  states 
as  it  was  evidently  made  to  defeat  the  seceding  states, 
and  there  was  no  assurance  that  it  would  have  been  ap- 
proved by  the  North" — or  by  Lincoln.  However,  this 
had  no  connection  with  the  Hampton  Roads  conference. 
George  Lunt,  another  Massachusetts  historian,  says  of 
the  much  talked  $400,000,000  slave  compensation,  "Lin- 
coln's plan  was  to  free  the  slaves  in  the  South  by  war, 
and  pay  $400,000,000  by  Congressional  act  to  Northern 
slaveholders,"  probably  meaning  Delaware,  the  border 
states,  and  Illinois  where  General  Grant's  slaves  were. 

Ben  Hill  of  Georgia,  member  of  the  Confederate  Sen- 
ate and  confidential  friend  of  President  Davis,  says: 


56 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


"You  have  heard  it  said  that  the  President  embarrassed 
the  commissioners  by  giving  them  positive  instructions 
to  make  the  recognition  of  Independence  an  ultimatum, 
a  condition  precedent  to  any  negotiations.  That  is  not 
true.  I  have  it  from  Mr.  Davis'  own  lips  that  he  gave 
the  commissioners  no  written  instructions  and  no  ulti 
matum.  He  gave  them  in  conversation,  his  views,  but 
leaving  much  to  their  discretion,  saying:  'They  could 
best  judge  how  to  conduct  the  conference  when  they 
met.'  His  own  opinion  was,  that  it  would  be  most  prop- 
er and  wise  so  to  conduct  it,  if  they  could,  as  to  receive 
rather  than  make  propositions.  While  he  did  not  feel 
authorized  to  yield  our  independence  in  advance,  and 
should  not  do  so,  though  he  would  not  deceive  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, it  might  be  well  for  them  to  secure  an  armistice, 
although  Mr.  Lincoln  might  understand  that  reunion 
must,  as  a  result,  follow.  However,  he  had  little 
hope  of  success,  after  he  learned  that  Seward  and  Lin- 
coln would  both  be  there." 

All  other  authorities  that  I  have  read  deny  the  report 
that  Lincoln  said  ''Keep  your  slaves  and  come  back  into 
the  Union"  or  anything  like  it.  But,  supposing  he  had 
made  such  a  proposition,  it  would  not  have  been  ac- 
cepted, for  the  South  was  contending  for  a  principle  far 
greater  than  the  moneyed  value  of  slaves,  which  was 
merely  an  incidental  issue,  the  excuse  of  the  Northern 
partisans. 

The  Slavery  Fallacy 

As  it  has  been  so  often  said  that  slavery  was  the  cause 
of  the  war  between  the  states,  I  would  suggest  it  could 
not  have  been.  A  generous  and  enlightened  people  could 
not  have  introduced  slavery  and,  having  sold  their  own, 
would  inaugurate  a  cruel  war  to  liberate  the  slaves  of 
their  neighbors  rather  than  by  compensation.  The 
'Desire'  of  Massachusetts  was  the  first  American  ship  to 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  57 


engage  in  kidnapping  Africans  and  selling  them  in 
America;  Massachusetts  was  the  first  state  to  establish 
perpetual  slavery  by  law.  (See  Mass.  Hist.  Col.,  Vol. 
8.,  page  231.)  Massachusetts  was  the  first  to  enact  a 
1  'Fugitive  Slave  Law" — the  British  Encyclopedia  says 
New  Jersey;  and  the  last  state  to  legislate  against  slav- 
ery was  Massachusetts.  Fifty  years  after  the  federal 
government  had  (on  motion  of  a  Southern  man)  pro- 
hibited importation  of  slaves,  the  'Nightingale'  of 
Massachusetts,  was  in  1861  enroute  to  America  when 
captured  with  900  Africans  in  her  hold,  captured  by 
Captain  Guthrie  nine  days  after  the  surrender  of  Fort 
Sumter.  The  'Cradle  of  Liberty'  of  Boston  and  'Girard 
College '  in  Philadelphia,  were  both  built  by  money  made 
in  the  slave  traffic.  No  Southern  man  or  ship  ever  en- 
gaged in  slave  traffic.  This  is  just  to  keep  the  record 
straight. 

The  South  had  been  for  many  years  discussing  the 
abolition  of  slavery  and  one  measure  in  the  Virginia 
Assembly  was  finally  lost  on  a  tie  vote.  The  first  colony 
to  forbid  slaves  was  Georgia,  and  the  first  state  to  legis- 
late against  the  slave  trade  was  Georgia ;  the  only  state 
to  make  it  a  felony  to  buy  a  slave  was  Virginia.  Many 
of  our  leading  statesmen  were  desirous  of  abolishing  the 
institution  brought  south  by  New  England,  and  which 
was  supported  by  the  traffic  of  New  England  ships,  but 
the  serious  problem  was  ' '  What  shall  we  da  with  them  ? ' ' 
It  was  never  suggested  to  sell  them,  as  New  England 
sold  them  to  the  South,  or  to  dump  them  into  the  jungles 
of  Africa.  Several  Southern  slaveholders,  among  them 
John  Randolph  through  Bishop  Meade,  manumitted 
their  slaves,  settling  them  in  comfortable  homes  in  Ohio 
where  the  town  of  Xenia  now  stands,  but  white  men 
from  the  East  took  their  lands  away  from  them.  Just 
here  let  me  say  that  General  Lee  declared  that  "no  just 


58 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


man  could  defend  the  institution  of  slavery;"  he  freed 
his  slaves  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  General  Joseph 
E.  Johnston  and  General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston, 
owned  no  slaves ;  Stonewall  J ackson  owned  none  and 
believed  they  should  be  free ;  Dr.  Hunter  McGuire,  a 
noted  authority,  says  he  knew  nearly  every  man  in 
Stonewall  Jackson 's  army  and  not  one  in  30  was  a  slave- 
owner. My  father  was  a  newspaper  publisher,  owned 
no  slaves,  but  advocated  secession  because  of  the  wrongs 
of  the  North,  and  was  captain  of  one  of  the  first  com- 
panies going  into  action.  War  for  slavery !  It  is  one  of 
the  calumnies  against  the  South.  But  General  Grant 
kept  his  slaves  at  work  until  even  after  Lincoln's  eman- 
cipation proclamation,  and  until  the  adoption  of  the 
14th  Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  during  reconstruc- 
tion. Just  here,  it  is  not  amiss  to  say,  that  inasmuch  as 
President  Lincoln's  emancipation  proclamation  ex- 
empted from  its  operation  the  states  of  Delaware,  Mary- 
land, Kentucky  and  Missouri,  where  he  supposedly  had 
authority,  and  was  operative  only  in  the  seceded  states 
where  he  had  none,  it  must  have  been  a  hypocritical  play 
for  Northern  or  European  consumption,  or  else  was 
designed  to  encourage  the  negroes  to  revolt  and  insur- 
rection and  massacre,  after  the  manner  of  John  Brown's 
plan.  He  certainly  did  not  believe  his  proclamation 
would  emancipate  the  negro  in  the  South.  No  such 
illogical  or  inconsistent  act  ever  spotted  Jefferson  Davis' 
official  conduct. 

It  is  with  much  reluctance  we  again  here  have  to  refer 
to  Lincoln's  conduct  or  course  of  action.  But  it  is  an 
instance  where  both  could  not  be  right.  It  is  equally 
clear  that  one  was  the  aggressor  in  a  great  war  of  in- 
vasion and  conquest ;  the  other  a  contendor  for  the  union 
under  the  constitution  and  a  leader  in  a  war  of  defense 
of  home  and  country.    If  President  Davis  could  have 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  59 


prevented  the  war  he  was  wrong;  he  sent  a  commission 
to  plead  with  Lincoln  to  withdraw  Anderson  and  avoid 
war.  If  he  could  have  stopped  it  and  did  not  try,  he 
was  wrong;  he  sent  a  commission  to  Hampton  Roads 
asking  for  an  armistice  and  peace,  which  Lincoln  refused 
to  consider.  If  he  could  have  prevented  the  heavy 
mortality  in  prisons  North  and  South  and  failed  to  try, 
he  was  wrong;  but  he  hastened  exchanges  until  stopped 
by  Lincoln ;  and  thrice  renewed  ef orts  to  renew  the 
cartel  for  exchange,  and  Lincoln  orders  prevented.  These 
are  mere  truths  of  history  that  should  be  preserved. 

Southern  Soldiery  Admiration  of  the  World 

Again,  President  Davis  was  criticised  for  certain 
changes  in  military  commanders.  He  may  have  erred 
in  some  of  the  few  changes,  but  no  man  has  ever  said  that 
he  was  actuated  by  any  but  the  purest  patriotic  motives, 
and  the  best  interests  of  the  Confederacy.  What  man 
could  have  steered  a  government  so  new,  and  hastily 
organized  an  army  without  friction  or  mistake?  Lin- 
coln made  more  changes  in  the  federal  army  than  Presi- 
dent Davis  did  in  the  Confederate  Army  and  yet  his 
forces  won,  but  it  was  not  due  to  his  wisdom  so  much 
as  to  the  resources  which  enabled  him  to  supply  men  as 
fast  as  the  South  killed  and  captured  them.  It  was 
said  of  Grant  (how  true  I  cannot  say)  that  he  would 
wire  Lincoln  "Send  me  another  army — they  have  killed 
and  captured  this  one."  It  was  beyond  the  power  of 
man  to  cope  longer  than  two  years  against  odds  which 
increased  from  three-to-one  at  the  beginning  of  the  war 
to  six-to-one  at  its  close,  with  proportionate  increased 
advantage  in  resources.  But  in  estimating  President 
Davis'  abilities  as  President  and  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  army,  (he  was  commander  in  chief  the  first  two 
years)  let  us  remember  that  for  the  first  two  years  the 


60 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


Confederate  forces  as  organized  and  conducted  by  him 
won  almost  every  battle;  and  had  really  won  two  great 
battles  which  were  lost  by  the  tragic  death  of  the  com- 
manders— Stonewall  Jackson  at  Chancellorsville,  acci- 
dentally killed  by  his  own  men,  and  Albert  Sidney  John- 
ston at  Shiloh, — where  in  both  instances  the  death  of  the 
commander  was  such  a  shock  to  the  men,  that  amid 
grief  and  confusion  time  was  lost  until  reinforcements 
came  to  the  vanquished  Federals  and  turned  our  victory 
into  defeat.  What  would  have  been  the  result  and  effect 
on  the  war  had  Grant's  army  remained  captured  at 
Shiloh,  and  Hooker's  at  Chancellorsville,  no  man  can 
say.  Chickamauga  was  a  signal  victory  by  the  Confed- 
erates and  would  have  been  followed  by  another  at 
Missionary  Ridge  but  for  shortage  in  ammunition.  Gen- 
eral Bragg  found  he  had  not  enough  ammunition  to  hold 
the  Ridge,  so  was  forced  to  retire  as  best  he  could,  and 
even  that  was  with  the  loss  of  5,000  or  6,000  prisoners, 
among  whom  was  my  father's  entire  company.  Yes, 
President  Davis  was  an  able  executive  and  successful 
commander  of  the  army,  and  true  to  his  people  and  their 
cause.  What  commander  could  have  won  against  the 
hordes  of  Europe? 

Jefferson  Davis'  armies  were  twice  very  near  the 
gates  of  Washington.  The  first  great  victory  of 
Manassas  and  the  utter  route  of  the  Union  forces  and 
their  ignominus  flight  to  Washington  pell-mell  with  the 
official  and  society  leaders  who  had  "gone  to  see  the 
rebels  whipped"  was  the  great  comedy  of  the  war. 
Then,  there's  the  tragedy  of  Gettysburg,  where  both 
armies  were  exhausted,  worn  out  against  each  other. 
Pickett's  immortal  charge  left  an  impress  they  never 
knew.  General  Lee,  appalled  at  the  loss  of  human  life, 
and  General  Meade  viewing  the  even  greater  slaughter 
of  his  own  men — both  preparing  to  withdraw  from  the 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  61 


scene  of  carnage.  From  Meade's  high  point  of  observa- 
tion was  noted  a  retiring  movement  on  the  part  of  Lee. 
Meade  stopped,  watched  and  waited,  and  to  him  was 
accorded  the  victory.  Had  Lee  held  out  another  half 
hour  Victory  would  have  perched  on  the  banner  of  the 
Confederacy,  and — on  to  Washington.  The  number 
engaged  was  about  100,000  Union  and  65,000  Confeder- 
ates. Jefferson  Davis  was  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
65,000  grays,  which  met  the  100,000  blues  at  Gettysburg. 

Andersonville,  and  Prison  Mortality  North  and  South 

Another  misrepresentation  of  President  Davis,  the 
grossest  and  most  outrageously  false,  was,  coming  from 
the  enemy  of  course,  a  direct  responsibility  for  the 
heavy  mortality  in  Andersonville  prison  in  southern 
Georgia.  I  recently  visited  the  place;  there  were  alto- 
gether during  the  war  more  than  53,000  prisoners  con- 
fined there,  32,000  at  one  time.  Of  course  it  was  im- 
possible to  provide  sanitary  regulations  in  a  camp  of 
that  magnitude,  and  almost  as  difficult  to  provide  them 
with  wholesome  food  and  the  kind  they  had  been  used 
to.  The  result  was  sickness  and  epidemic  during  the 
hot  months  when  the  death  rate  reached  as  high  as  50 
to  60  a  day — a  total  of  13,700  during  the  war.  The 
North,  overlooking  the  fact  that  the  Southern  soldier 
fared  even  worse  in  northern  prisons,  made  great  com- 
plaint against  the  management  of  Andersonville  prison, 
and  a  few  months  after  the  close  of  the  war,  Major 
Henry  Wirz,  the  commander  of  the  prison,  was  arraigned 
on  a  charge  of  murder,  and  while  the  Federal  govern- 
ment had  the  South  by  the  throat  under  military  rule, 
Major  Wirz  was  condemned  by  court-martial  and  hung. 
Federal  authorities  offered  him  freedom  and  life  if  he 
would  give  testimony  which  would  implicate  President 
Davis  in  a  plan  for  maltreatment  of  prisoners.  This 


62 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


proposal  was  indignantly  spurned  by  Major  Wirz,  and 
the  imputation  denounced  as  false  without  any 
foundation. 

The  fact  that  conditions  were  so  bad  in  Andersonville 
prison,  while  most  regretable,  is  nevertheless  creditable 
to  the  skill  and  valor  of  the  Confederates ;  for  our  boys 
in  gray  captured  the  boys  in  blue  faster  than  we  could 
provide  for  their  accommodation.  Recalling  the  fearful 
accusation  of  bitter  partisans  of  responsibility  of  Presi- 
dent Davis  for  the  unusual  mortality  among  Anderson- 
ville prisoners,  we  can  only  refer  to  written  history 
which  abundantly  records  that  after  President  Lincoln 
suspended  the  cartel  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners  and 
President  Davis  had  twice  endeavored  to  renew  the 
cartel,  he  said  to  the  Federal  government  that  1 '  they  had 
made  drugs  and  medicines  contraband  of  war,  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  civilized  nations,"  but  that  he 
would  exchange  the  North  cotton  for  drugs  to  be  used  in 
Andersonville  prison;  and  that  being  refused,  he  pro- 
posed that  the  Federal  government  send  down  its  own 
physicians  and  medicines  under  Confederate  guarantee 
of  safe  conduct  and  every  courtesy,  and  that  was  refused. 
And  yet  they  maligned  President  Davis  and  hanged 
Wirz. 

General  Grant's  Estimate  of  Confederate  Efficiency 

The  Southern  people  erected  a  very  imposing  monu- 
ment to  the  memory  of  Major  Wirz  just  outside  the  old 
stockade  which  has  been  made  a  national  cemetery  by 
the  Federal  government,  and  upon  this  monument  en- 
graved in  the  marble  base  is  a  quotation  from  General 
Grant,  evidently  an  apology  to  the  Northern  clamor  for 
exchange  of  prisoners,  which  is  in  substance  as  follows, 
as  near  as  I  can  recall  the  words;  ''Liberation  of  our 
soldiers  from  Southern  prisons  would  be  a  most  humani- 
tarian thing,  but  if  we  should  exchange  prisoners  now, 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  63 


it  would  result  in  the  defeat  of  Sherman 's  army. ' '  Cer- 
tainly an  awful  admission;  that  three  of  their  men  re- 
leased could  not  be  equal  in  fighting  force  to  two  of 
Southern  released  prisoners. 

After  the  execution  of  Major  Wirz,  Senator  Ben  Hill 
made  thorough  investigation  of  the  records,  procured  the 
number  of  prisoners  confined  in  each  prison  of  the 
North  and  of  the  South,  and  the  number  of  deaths  in 
each,  and  had  it  embodied  through  a  speech  in  the  Sen- 
ate in  the  Congressional  Record,  showing  that  while  the 
South  had  270,000  federals  in  southern  prisons,  and  the 
North  had  only  220,000  Confederates  in  her  prisons, 
there  were  26,326  deaths  in  the  northern  prisons  and 
only  22,756  death  in  the  southern  prisons,  50,000  more 
men  in  southern  than  in  northern  prisons,  but  3,570 
more  deaths  in  the  North.  Ajid  yet  they  blamed  J ef f er- 
son  Davis  and  hung  Wirz,  while  the  death  record  was 
12  per  cent  in  northern  as  against  9  per  cent  in  south- 
ern prisons. 

Capture  of  President  Davis'  Party 

With  Richmond  almost  completely  surrounded,  Presi- 
dent Davis  deemed  it  wise  to  move  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment further  South,  for  he  was  not  yet  without  hope  of 
success.  General  Joe  Johnston  was  still  fighting,  and 
there  was  the  army  of  the  Tennessee  and  the  Western 
armies  winning  occasional  victories.  So,  the  President 
and  his  cabinet  moved  on  South,  to  Greensboro,  and 
thence  into  Georgia.  Hearing  of  Johnston's  surrender, 
they  concluded  to  make  their  way  to  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi where  with  General  Kirby  Smith  it  was  hoped  to 
still  prolong  the  war  to  success.  The  Federals,  however, 
did  not  intend  to  let  the  President  escape.  At  Irvington, 
Georgia,  the  President's  party  went  into  camp,  as  it  de- 
veloped, for  the  last  time.   Next  morning.  May  10,  1865, 


64 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


while  it  was  slowly  raining,  horses  were  gotten  ready 
for  the  start  west,  when  suddenly  the  Federals  were  all 
about  them  and,  coming  from  opposite  directions,  were 
firing  at  each  other.  Governor  Lubbock,  in  his  Memoirs, 
says  that  President  Davis  was  dressed  in  the  clothes  he 
usually  wore,  sitting  on  a  log,  a  light  rain  cloak  thrown 
around  his  shoulders,  when  he  was  arrested.  Governor 
Lubbock  called  to  the  Federal  commander  to  stop  fir- 
ing and  killing  each  other.  He  says  that  the  story  of  the 
President  endeavoring  to  escape  in  female  attire  was 
contemptibly  false,  as  every  one  there  knows.  His  con- 
duct was  that  of  a  brave  soldier  and  his  bearing  such  as 
might  have  been  expected  from  a  man  who  had  often 
met  perils  unmoved — a  great  general  whose  sun  was 
sinking  below  the  horizon  after  stormy  days  of  battle,  of 
a  noble  spirit  capable  of  dying,  if  fortune  so  willed, 
upon  the  block  without  the  tremor  of  a  muscle,  without 
blanching  of  the  cheek  by  the  absence  of  a  single  wonted 
crimson  drop,  and  with  flashing  eagle  eyes  undimmed. 
He  sat  firmly  erect,  and  looked  in  all  respects  more  the 
ideal  hero  than  in  the  hours  of  his  greatest  prosperity. ' ' 

Mrs.  Davis  had  protested  against  the  seizure  of  her 
pair  of  carriage  horses,  which  were  the  gift  of  Richmond 
friends,  but  her  protest  was  unheeded.  During  all 
this  wretched  time,  says  Governor  Lubbock,  she  bore  up 
with  womanly  fortitude.  She  may  have  expressed  to 
her  friends  her  indignation  at  the  conduct  of  our  cap- 
tors, but  her  bearing  toward  them  was  such  as  to  be 
expected  from  so  elegant,  high-souled,  and  refined  a 
Southern  woman.  The  children  were  all  young  and 
hovered  about  her  like  a  covey  of  young  frightened 
partridges. ' ' 

"It  was  on  our  way  east  under  guard  that  we  heard 
the  surprising  news  that  $100,000  reward  had  been  of- 
fered by  the  Washington  government  for  the  capture  of 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  65 


the  President  who  was  accused  of  being  an  accessory  to 
the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln,"  says  Governor 
Lubbock,  "a  charge  so  preposterous  to  those  of  us  who 
knew  him,  that  we  were  at  a  loss  to  account  for  its  being 
made,  until  we  became  more  fully  acquainted  with  the 
blind  rage  that  possessed  the  northern  people." 

The  President's  party  at  this  time  consisted  of  his 
wife  and  children,  Governor  Lubbock,  John  H.  Reagan, 
also  of  Texas,  his  postmaster  general,  Colonel  Burton 
Harrison,  his  secretary,  M.  H.  Clark,  acting  treasurer, 
Colonel  John  Taylor  Wood,  Colonel  Wm.  Preston  John- 
ston, and  Generals  Duke,  Dibrell,  and  W.  P.  C.  Brecken- 
ridge  commanding  the  small  escort.  At  Augusta,  Ga. 
there  were  added  Vice-President  A.  H.  Stephens,  General 
Joe  Wheeler,  and  Senator  Clay  of  Alabama  and  his 
spirited  wife. 

Mr.  Davis  Would  Make  No  Effort  to  Escape 

Vice  President  Stephens  and  Postmaster  General 
Reagan  were  sent  to  Fort  Warren,  General  Wheeler, 
Colonel  Johnston  and  Governor  Lubbock  were  sent  to 
Fort  Delaware,  despite  the  special  request  of  the  Presi- 
dent that  the  Governor  should  be  permitted  to  remain 
with  him.  The  President  was  confined  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  and  shackled  with  heavy  irons.  Think  of  it,  the 
hero  of  Buena  Vista,  who  declined  President  Polk's 
commission  as  Brigadier  General,  confined  to  a  cell  and 
his  limbs  ironed  to  a  heavy  chain  by  Americans.  But 
the  President  had  said  to  Governor  Lubbock  soon  after 
the  capture  that  he  would  not  make  any  effort  to  escape. 
There  he  was  kept  for  nearly  two  years,  Mr.  Davis  and 
his  counsel  all  the  time  insisting  on  trial.  Partisan  hate 
all  the  time  was  seeking  to  secure  some  evidence  upon 
which  they  could  put  him  to  death.  It  has  been  said 
that  his  accusers  feared  to  try  him,  for  fear  their  con- 


66  SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


viction  would  not  stand  the  test  of  the  courts ;  and  that 
they  secured  an  underground  decision  from  the  Supreme 
Court  judges,  which  was  that  Jefferson  Davis  had  done 
no  more  than  he  had  a  right  to  do  under  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  it  was  then  that  they  assumed  a 
magnanimous  attitude  and  allowed  the  charge  to  go 
without  trial,  ordering  his  release  after  two  years  im- 
prisonment. 

In  all  his  confinement  and  suffering,  Jefferson  Davis 
bore  up  as  only  the  patriot  conscious  of  his  right-doing, 
and  the  soldier  bravely  facing  danger  and  suffering, 
can  do.  Truly,  his  heroic  conduct  under  such  trying 
ordeal  in  defeat  added  a  brilliance  and  glory  to  a  name 
already  sublimely  great  from  unselfish  service. 

Monument  and  Tributes  to  Jefferson  Davis 

Governor  Fields  of  Kentucky,  a  neutral  state,  in  an 
address  accepting  for  the  state  the  400  foot  high  monu- 
ment at  Fairview,  Jefferson  Davis'  birthplace,  erected 
by  loving  admirers  throughout  the  South,  paid  the 
eminent  southern  leader  a  beautiful  tribute  in  which  he 
said:  "The  failure  of  the  Confederacy  more  or  less  ob- 
scured the  splendid  qualities  that  belonged  to  this  great 
man;  but  had  the  Confederacy  been  established,  his 
name  would  have  been  second  only  to  Washington." 

Hon.  Dunbar  Rowland,  Mississippi's  distinguished 
historian,  in  his  reference  to  a  certain  class  of  historians 
and  biographers  draws  a  distinction  between  a  propa- 
ganda made  fame  and  true  greatness.  He  says :  1 1  There 
is  nothing  more  belittling  to  the  fame  of  a  great  man 
than  overlaudation  by  partial  biographers.  The  better 
class  of  historians  have  discarded  completely  sickly  sen- 
timentality in  biography.  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  strong, 
crude,  rugged,  unconventional,  honest,  earnest  man,  but 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


67 


a  politician  throughout,  acting  his  part  shrewdly,  has 
by  his  biographers  Nicolay  and  Hay  and  a  host  of  others 
been  transformed  and  elevated  into  a  mythological  hero 
so  perfect  and  marvelous  as  to  seem  something  of  a  cari- 
cature. Jefferson  Davis,  the  equal  of  Lincoln  in  natural 
goodness  of  heart,  and  his  superior  in  culture,  training 
for  statesmanship,  courage,  devotion,  to  duty  and  earn- 
estness of  conviction,  acting  his  part  well  and  wisely,  in 
failure,  has  received  opposite  treatment.  He  has  been 
made  the  subject  of  bitter  invective  by  a  school  of  pre- 
judiced historians  who  have  been  for  many  years  en- 
gaged in  the  preparation  and  distribution  of  propaganda 
having  no  connection  with  truth. 

' '  We  have  no  need  to  deify  Jefferson  Davis ;  it  is  not 
necessary  to  indulge  in  extravagant  eulogy,  but  it  is  in- 
cumbent upon  us  of  the  South  to  try  to  give  a  just  his- 
torical estimate  of  a  truly  great  man  who  was  the  most 
dominant  and  commanding  figure  in  a  great  if  not  the 
greatest  crisis  in  American  history." 

As  many  northern  writers  and  speakers,  notably  two 
recent  G.  A.  R.  officials  high  in  the  councils  of  that  or- 
ganization, persist  in  referring  to  the  war  between  the 
states  as  a  "rebellion"  and  the  use  of  the  word 
"treason"  therewith,  I  will  here  quote  again  as  appro- 
priate northern  evidence  that  the  war  was  forced  upon 
the  South  by  design  of  leading  northern  men : 

The  New  York  Herald,  April  5,  1861,  said:  "We  have 
no  doubt  Mr.  Lincoln  wants  the  Cabinet  at  Montgomery 
to  take  the  initiative  by  capturing  two  forts,  *  *  * 
But  the  country  and  posterity  will  hold  him  just  as 
responsible  as  if  he  struck  the  first  blow. 9  9 

Secretary  of  the  Navy  Welles :  ' '  There  was  not  a  man 
in  the  Cabinet  who  did  not  know  that  an  attempt  to  rein- 
force Fort  Sumter  would  be  the  first  blow  of  the  war." 


68  SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


Senator  Zach  Chandler  to  the  Governor  of  Michigan : 
1 1  Some  peace  delegates  here  fear  war,  but  without  a  little 
blood-letting  this  government  will  not  be  worth  a  curse. 
Send  down  some  men  with  the  fighting  spirit." 

Lincoln  said  to  Editor  Medill  of  Chicago:  "Next  to 
Boston,  Chicago  has  been  the  chief  instrument  in  bring- 
ing on  this  war.   You  called  for  war,  and  you  got  it."' 

The  New  York  Express  of  April  15,  1861,  said:  "The 
people  of  the  United  States  have  petitioned,  begged  and 
implored  these  men  (Lincoln,  Seward,  et  al)  who  are  be- 
come their  accidental  masters,  to  give  them  opportunity 
to  be  heard  before  this  unnatural  strife  was  pushed  to 
bloody  extreme,  but  their  petitions  were  spurned  with 
contempt. ' ' 

These  are  but  a  few  expressions.  Many  could  be 
quoted,  hundreds  from  Northern  men  and  Republicans. 
The  right  of  the  states  to  withdraw  from  the  Union  was 
recognized  all  through  the  North.  Exercising  that  right 
under  the  constitution,  they  were  not  guilty  of  rebellion 
or  of  treason.  If  so,  why  did  not  the  partisan  Republi- 
can leaders  arrest  and  charge  with  treason  or  fomenting 
rebellion  the  Senators  and  Congressmen  when  they  re- 
signed with  avowed  intention  of  coming  south  to  engage 
in  the  organization  of  the  Confederacy?  Why  did  they 
not  arrest  and  charge  with  treason  Robert  E.  Lee,  Stone- 
wall Jackson,  the  two  Johnstons,  Bragg,  Hood  and 
Walker  and  other  officers  of  the  U.  S.  Army  when  they 
tendered  their  resignations  and  came  to  join  the  "re- 
bellious 1 '  army !  In  accepting  the  resignations  the  U.  S. 
acknowledged  the  right  of  secession.  They  knew  then 
and  all  the  time  that  the  Southerners  were  acting  with- 
in their  constitutional  rights.  In  fact  the  United  States 
government  had  for  many  years  taught  the  cadets  in 
the  Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  through  ' 1  Rawles ' 
Constitution"  that  in  event  of  a  state  withdrawing  from 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  69 


the  Union,  the  allegiance  of  the  citizen  or  army  officer 
was  due  to  the  State.  R.  E.  Lee  said  that  that  instruc- 
tion from  that  U.  S.  text  book  left  no  doubt  in  his  mind 
as  to  his  duty  after  Virginia  had  seceded.  Is  it  any  won- 
der, when  the  government  had  so  instructed,  that  our 
Southern  officers  resigned,  or  that  the  government  so 
promptly  accepted  their  resignations?  There  was  no 
question  of  loyalty  raised.  But  even  if  it  were  rebellion, 
did  not  George  Washington,  Thomas  Jefferson,  Pat- 
rick Henry,  Ben  Franklin  and  others  renounce  their 
allegiance  to  Great  Britain  and  take  up  arms  against 
that  country  1   We  applaud  them.    But  Richmond  fell ! 

When  General  Lee  at  Appomattox  looked  about  him 
and  saw  the  care  worn  though  grim-visaged  and  yet 
courageous  soldiers  of  his  army,  and  observed  the  greatly 
depleted  ranks,  while  on  the  other  hand  surrounding 
him  were  the  largely  augmented  armies  of  General 
Grant,  tears  dimmed  his  eyes.  When  Grant  in  his  sev- 
eral-times repeated  plea  for  Lee's  surrender,  referred 
to  the  hopelessness  of  his  situation  and  urged  him  to  not 
further  fight  against  the  great  odds  opposed  to  him, 
General  Lee  finally  yielded.  The  fight  was  lost,  but 
not  yet  the  cause,  for  Principles  never  die.  Appomattox 
was  a  battle  field  and  not  a  forum. 

The  devastation  of  the  Southern  States  was  so  com- 
plete with  four  years  of  "reconstruction"  as  cruel  and 
destructive  as  the  war,  that  after  it  all  our  returning 
soldiers  must  go  to  work  with  the  same  courage  and  de- 
termination which  had  characterized  their  conduct  on 
the  battlefield,  to  restore  the  country  to  its  former  pro- 
ductiveness. With  what  success  that  was  done  is  a  mat- 
ter of  history  we  are  proud  of.  There  was  no  time  then 
for  Veteran  Associations  and  monuments,  but  when  the 
Old  South  was  again  blossoming  and  fruiting  with  its 
pristine  glory,  attention  was  given  to  monuments  in 


70 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


honor  of  the  men  who  had  lost  in  their  valliant  fight  for 
the  constitution,  but  who  had  won  glory  on  the  field,  and 
then  won  great  renown  in  restored  happiness  and  pros- 
perity from  defeat  and  devastation. 

Mr.  Davis  Lays  Cornerstone  of  First  Monument 

One  of  the  first  monuments  erected  was  in  1886  at 
Montgomery,  the  scene  of  the  organization  of  the  Con- 
federacy.   Ex-President  Jefferson  Davis  accepted  the 
invitation  to  be  present  and  lay  the  corner  stone.  In 
his  speech  he  said  among  other  things  "Permit  me  to 
say  that  though  the  memory  of  our  glorious  past  must 
be  ever  dear  to  us,  duty  points  to  the  present  and  the 
future.    Alabama  having  resumed  her  place  in  the 
Union,  be  it  yours  to  fulfill  all  obligations  devolving 
upon  good  citizens,  seeking  to  restore  the  general  gov- 
ernment to  its  pristine  purity  as  best  you  can,  to  pro- 
mote the  welfare  of  your  common  country. ' '   His  tribute 
to  Lee  on  the  occasion  of  dedicating  the  Memorial  is 
just  as  applicable  to  the  president:  "It  is  as  much  an 
honor  to  you  who  give  as  to  him  who  receives,  for  above 
the  vulgar  test  of  merit  you  show  yourselves  competent 
to  discriminate  between  him  who  enjoys  and  him  who 
deserves  success."    The  time  is  coming  when  all  the 
world  will  accord  Davis  and  Lee  and  their  compatriots 
the  honor  of  being  right  and  deserving  success.  All 
along  the  way  going  and  returning  admiring  country- 
men flocked  to  the  railway  stations  to  get  a  glimpse  of 
the  great  hero.   All  honor  was  paid  him  in  Montgomery 
and  enroute.    Old  soldiers  were  overjoyed  to  see  him 
again,  and  many  shed  tears  of  joy  and  gratitude  as  they 
shook  his  hand.    In  introducing  Mr.  Davis  on  that  oc- 
casion Henry  W.  Grady  said:  "It  is  good,  sir,  for  you 
to  be  here.    Other  leaders  have  had  their  triumphs. 
Conquerors  have  won  crowns,  and  honors  have  been  piled 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  71 


on  the  victors  of  earth's  great  battles,  but  never  yet, 
sir,  came  man  to  more  loving  people.  Never  conqueror 
wore  prouder  diadem  than  the  deathless  love  that 
crowns  your  grey  hairs  today.  Never  king  inhabited 
palace  more  splendid  than  the  millions  of  brave  hearts 
in  which  your  dear  name  and  fame  are  forever  en- 
shrined. ' ' 

Sons  and  Daughters,  Keep  the  Home-Fires  Burning 

In  our  purpose  to  honor  the  memory  of  our  one 
time  beloved  leaders  of  the  '60s  and  to  pay  tribute  to  the 
men  who  fought  a  great  fight  for  constitutional  liberty 
and  in  defense  of  our  homes,  we  bear  no  animosity,  have 
no  bitterness  in  our  heart.  But  we  do  insist  that  it  is 
not  only  our  blessed  privilege  but  our  sacred  duty  to  do 
so,  and  to  do  those  things  which  will  show  the  world 
that  we  respect  and  reverence  the  statesmen  and  soldiers 
of  the  Confederacy.  For  my  father  and  yours  contended 
honestly  and  fearlessly  for  a  principle — they  fought  for 
the  rights  of  the  states  as  guaranteed  by  the  Federal 
constitution.  They  not  only  " thought  they  were  right," 
but  knew  they  were  right,  and  future  generations  of  our 
entire  country  will  yet  acknowledge  they  were  right. 

Some  there  are  who  disapprove  these  patriotic  organ- 
izations. But  I  want  to  say  that  they  are  elevating,  in- 
spiring and  productive  only  of  good.  Social  life  and 
education  without  character  are  worthless,  and  no  civil- 
ization can  stand  which  does  not  honor  its  heroic  de- 
fenders. Patriotism  is  even  helpful  in  business  as  Chris- 
tianity is. 

So  having  no  apology  to  make  for  the  course  of  our 
fathers  in  contending  first,  peacefully,  under  the  con- 
stitution for  the  right  of  secession,  and  next  in  their 
heroic  resistance  to  armed  invasion  and  in  defense  of 
our  homes,  let  us  maintain  these  organizations  of  the 


72 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


Sons  of  Confederate  Veterans  and  the  United  Daughters 
of  Confederacy.  They  are  means  of  preserving  his- 
tory of  that  momentous  period,  preserving  the  traditions 
so  dear  to  the  Veterans,  contributing  to  their  comfort 
and  happiness  through  their  remaining  years  here  and 
perptuating  their  memory  through  future  generations, 
that  their  descendants  may  know  they  honored  and  de- 
fended the  constitution  and  fought  as  patriots  only  when 
they  were  forced  to  arms,  and  that  their  record  in  peace 
and  in  war,  and  again  in  peaceful  restoration  of  the 
Southland  to  its  former  glory,  is  a  proud  heritage  to  be 
preserved  and  honored  throughout  all  time.  Maintaining 
these  objects  can  but  influence  a  purer  private  life  and 
higher  public  service  and  enhance  our  purpose  to  honor 
the  union  and  promote  the  welfare  of  our  common 
country. 

We  are  one  country.  Our  loyalty  has  been  demon- 
strated on  a  hundred  battlefields  since  the  sixties.  Our 
purpose  to  honor  our  fathers  and  do  what  we  can  to 
perpetuate  their  memory  is  not  an  effort  to  revive  ani- 
mosities. No  need  of  that.  The  northerner  who  is  so 
unreasonable  as  to  criticise  or  the  southerner  who  fears 
it,  is  the  disloyal  and  unworthy  one.  Contempt  of  brave 
men  should  be  no  less  for  the  one  than  the  other. 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  73 


ADDENDA 

Additional  High  Lights  in  History 

With  the  purpose  of  showing  the  excited  state  of 
mind  through  the  Northern  States  in  1860  was  the 
growth  of  a  hundred  years,  beginning  when  slaves  were 
owned  in  all  the  country;  and  was  largely  augmented 
off  and  on  by  discontents  of  the  old  Federal  (mon- 
archist) party  and  British  influences  to  bring  about 
division  of  our  country;  to  throw  additional  light  on 
the  character  of  the  man  selected  and  elected  to  lead 
the  pre-arranged  campaign  and  to  execute  this  vio- 
lent temper  of  the  sectional  party;  to  contrast  these 
combined  motives  with  the  self-sacrificial  devotion  of 
the  Southern  people  to  their  high  ideals  of  government, 
their  devotion  to  principles  they  held  dear ;  with  further 
proof  from  Northern  witnesses  of  the  acute  situation 
which  left  a  self-respecting  and  liberty-loving  peo- 
ple no  alternative  but  the  quiet  and  peaceful  exercise 
of  their  constitutional  Right  of  Secession — these  ad- 
ditional facts  are  presented: 

There  is  ample  authority  through  the  history  of  our 
country  that  the  old  Federalist  party  was  intrigued  by 
British  influences  (Gov.  Craig  of  Canada  and  other 
British  representatives)  with  a  view  to  help  bring 
about  a  breach  in  the  American  Federation,  hoping 
to  ally  New  England  with  Great  Britain. 

Sir  Robert  Peel  said  that  "the  $100,000,000  expend- 
ed to  free  the  negroes  of  the  West  Indies  was  the  best 
investment  ever  made  for  the  overthrown  of  Repub- 
lican institutions  in  America."  The  British  evidently 
felt  sure  that  negro  equality  in  America  would  destroy 
our  government. 


74  SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


One  Boston  paper  protesting  the  war  of  1812  with 
England,  declared:  "We  never  fought  to  establish  a 
Republic.  The  form  of  our  government  was  the  result 
of  necessity,  and  not  the  offspring  of  choice." 

The  Boston  Gazette  threatened  President  Madison 
with  death  if  he  compelled  the  Eastern  States  to  fight 
against  England  at  that  time.  (Horton's  History,  p 
23)  ;  and  Massachusetts  declined  to  furnish  her  quota 
of  troops. 

John  Quincy  Adams,  a  Massachusetts  man,  admitted 
that  '  'In  New  England  curses  and  anathemas  were  lib- 
erally hurled  from  the  pulpit  on  the  heads  of  all  those 
who  aided,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  carrying  on  the 
war"  1812. 

No  less  eminent  an  authority  than  Mathew  Carey  in 
his  "The  Olive  Branch",  relates  many  facts  in  relation 
to  a  conspiracy  in  New  England  to  break  up  the  Re- 
public as  early  as  1796.  He  says:  "A  Northern  Con- 
federacy has  been  the  object  for  a  number  of  years. 
They  have  repeatedly  advocated  in  public  prints  a 
separation  of  the  States,  on  account  of  pretended  dis- 
cordant views  and  interests  of  the  different  sections." 
(Horton's  History,  p  11). 

Governor  Banks  of  Massachusetts  (who,  by  the  way, 
tried  to  invade  Texas  with  an  army  of  40,000  through 
Louisiana,  but  was  twice  defeated  and  driven  back  to 
New  Orleans  by  Gen.  Dick  Taylor  with  a  third  the  num- 
ber of  Confederates)  as  far  back  as  1856,  gave  utter- 
ance to  monarchial  tendencies  of  his  section,  in  de- 
claring "I  can  conceive  of  a  time  when  this  constitu- 
tion shall  not  be  in  existence — when  we  shall  have  an 
absolute  dictatorial  government  transmitted  from  age 
to  age  with  men  at  its  head  who  are  rulers  by  military 
commission,  or  who  claim  an  hereditary  right  to  govern 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  75 


those  over  whom  they  were  placed."  Just  think  of  it. 
However,  Lincoln  made  good  as  to  the  ' '  dictatorial 
government"  replacing  the  constitutional  government 
of  our  fathers. 

William  Lloyd  Garrison  in  a  public  speech  in  the 
50 's  declared,  "This  Union  is  a  lie.  The  American 
Union  is  an  imposture — a  covenant  with  death,  and  an 
agreement  with  hell.  I  am  for  its  overthrow.  Up 
with  the  flag  of  disunion — "  This  from  one  of  the 
founders  and  leaders  of  the  Republican  party. 

Insurrection  Rather  Than  Emancipation 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  other  Northern  Preachers 
furnished  John  Brown  with  rifles  for  his  raid  into 
Virginia  and  spears  with  which  to  arm  the  negroes 
for  insurrection.  Beecher  said,  "It  is  a  crime  to  shoot 
at  a  slave-holder  and  not  hit  him."  A  New  England 
Society  furnished  Brown  money  and  one  individual 
alone  gave  $10,000. 

At  a  public  meeting  in  Massachusetts,  the  following 
resolution  offered  by  U.  S.  Senator  Henry  Wilson  was 
unanimously  adopted:  "Resolved,  that  it  is  right  and 
the  duty  of  slaves  to  resist  their  masters,  (This  when 
Massachusetts  had  grown  rich  on  the  slave  trafic  till 
stopped  by  Congress  in  1820  by  Southern  votes)  and 
the  right  and  duty  of  the  people  of  the  North  to  incite 
them  to  resistance  and  to  aid  them  in  it." 

At  Rockford,  111.,  a  public  meeting  "Resolved,  that 
the  city  bells  shall  be  tolled  for  one  hour  in  commemora- 
tion of  John  Brown" — on  his  execution  for  murder  in 
Virginia. 

Another  convention  "Resolved,  that  the  abolition- 
ists of  this  country  should  make  it  one  of  the  primary 
objects  of  this  agitation  to  dissolve  the  American  Union." 


76 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


Who  Were  the  Real  Rebels? 

The  "Helper  Book"  so  extensively  circulated  in  Lin- 
coln's campaign,  contained  over  300  pages  of  vitupera- 
tion and  threats  against  the  South,  such  as: 

"Do  not  reserve  the  strength  of  your  arms  until 
you  are  powerless  to  strike." 

"We  contend  that  slave-holders  are  more  criminal 
than  common  murderers,"  and  yet  New  England  had 
owned  slaves,  and  did  90  per  cent  of  the  traffic  in  Afri- 
cans which  they  kidnapped  in  African  jungles  and 
brought  over  in  their  ships  up  to  prohibition  by  the 
government. 

"The  negroes,  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  would  be  de- 
lighted at  the  opportunity  to  cut  their  masters' 
throats;"  but  what  must  have  been  their  astonishment 
when  the  masters  left  those  negro  cut-throats  to  care 
for  their  wives  and  children  for  four  years,  and  how 
faithfully  they  kept  the  trust. 

Mr.  Giddings,  a  prominent  Ohio  politician,  had  said: 
"I  look  forward  to  a  day  when  I  shall  see  a  servile  in- 
surrection in  the  South;  when  the  black  man,  supplied 
with  bayonets,  shall  wage  war  of  extermination  against 
the  whites — when  the  master  shall  see  his  dwelling  in 
flames,  and  his  hearth  polluted,  and  though  I  may  not 
mock  their  calamity  and  laugh  when  their  fear  cometh, 
yet  I  shall  hail  it  as  the  dawn  of  a  political  millenium." 
But  this  vile  dream  was  not  realized.  Even  during  the 
reconstruction  period  when  Lincoln's  followers  had 
the  South  by  the  throat,  and  sent  thousands  of  emi- 
saries  down  here  to  bring  about  such  a  condition,  they 
only  partially  succeeded  for  a  while,  when  men  of 
Anglo-Saxon  blood  broke  the  bonds  and  restored  White 
Supremacy. 

Judge  Jeremiah  Black,  of  Pennsylvania,  (in  Black's 
Essays)  said  of  the  federal  usurpation  and  abuse  of 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  77 


power  under  suspension  of  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  "Of 
wanton  cruelties  the  Lincoln  administration  inflicted 
upon  inoffending  citizens  I  have  neither  space,  nor 
skill,  nor  time,  to  paint  them;  since  the  fall  of  Robes- 
pierre, nothing  has  occurred  to  cast  such  disrepute  upon 
Republican  institutions." 

General  Don  Piatt,  who  traveled  with  Lincoln  dur- 
ing his  campaign  and  knew  Lincoln  perhaps  as  well 
as  any  man,  said: 

''When  a  leader  dies  all  good  men  go  to  lying 
about  him.  Abraham  Lincoln  has  almost  disappeared 
from  human  knowledge.  I  hear  of  him,  I  read  of  him 
in  eulogies  and  biographies,  but  fail  to  recoginize  the 
man  I  knew  in  life."  "Lincoln  faced  and  lived  through 
the  awful  responsiblity  of  war  with  a  courage  that 
came  from  indifference." 

Ward  Lamon,  intimate  friend  of  Lincoln  and  his 
V.  S.  Marshal  for  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  Col- 
onel in  the  Secret  Service,  Historian  Shepherd  of  Balti- 
more, W.  H.  Cunningham  of  the  Montgomery,  Mo., 
Star,  who  sat  right  behind  Lincoln  at  Gettysburg,  all 
agree  and  publicly  stated  that  the  speech  published 
was  not  the  one  delivered  by  Lincoln ;  that  both  Everett 
and  Seward  expressed  their  disappointment  and  there 
was  no  applause;  that  Lincoln  said:  "Lamon,  that 
speech  was  like  a  wet  blanket  on  the  audience.  I  am 
distressed  about  it."  These  gentlemen  who  heard  the 
speech  all  say  that  the  speech  delivered  was  not  the 
one  which  has  been  so  extensively  printed.  Even  Nico- 
lay  says:  "It  was  revised." 

Wm.  H.  Herndon,  under  whom  Lincoln  begun  his 
law  practice,  and  longtime  friend,  wrote  one  of  the 
first  biographies  of  Lincoln,  " Story  of  a  Great  Life," 
but  because  of  its  frankness  in  unfolding  the  life  of 
Lincoln,  it  was  bought  up  and  suppressed.    It  was  re- 


78 


SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


published  some  years  later,  much  modified,  and  from 
the  Preface  this  is  taken: 

"With  a  view  of  throwing  light  on  some  attributes 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  character  hitherto  obscure  these  vol- 
umes are  given  to  the  world.  The  whole  truth  con- 
cerning Mr.  Lincoln  should  be  known.  The  truth  will 
at  last  come  out,  and  no  man  need  hope  to  evade  it. 
Some  persons  will  doubtless  object  to  the  narative  of 
certain  facts,  but  these  facts  are  indispensable  to  a 
full  knowledge  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  We  must  be  prepared 
to  take  Mr.  Lincoln  as  he  was.  He  was  my  warm  per- 
sonal friend.  God's  naked  truth  cannot  injure  his 
fame." 

Lamon  in  his  Life  of  Lincoln,  says: 

"The  ceremony  of  Mr.  Linclon's  apotheosis  was 
planned  and  executed  after  his  death  by  men  who 
were  unfriendly  to  him  while  he  lived.  Men  who  had 
exhausted  the  resources  of  their  skill  and  ingenuity  in 
venomous  detractions  of  the  living  Lincoln  were  first 
after  his  death  to  undertake  the  task  of  guarding  his 
memory  ,  not  as  a  human  being,  but  as  a  god." 

"There  was  a  fierce  rivalry  who  should  canonize 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  most  solemn  words;  who  should 
compare  him  to  the  most  sacred  character  in  all  his- 
tory. He  was  prophet,  priest,  and  king;  he  was  Wash- 
ington, Moses,  and  likened  to  Christ  the  Redeemer, 
and  even  likened  unto  God.  After  that  came  the  cere- 
mony of  apotheosis;  and  this  was  the  work  of  men  who 
never  spoke  of  the  living  Lincoln  except  with  jeers 
and  contempt.  After  his  death  it  became  a  political 
necessity  to  pose  him  as  the  greatest,  wisest,  Godliest 
man  that  ever  lived."  Among  those  participating  in 
the  apotheosis  Lamon  names  Seward,  Stanton,  Thad 
Stephens  and  Summer. 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES 


79 


Herndon  says  in  his  Story  of  a  Great  Life : 

"Lincoln  detested  science  and  literature.  No  man  can 
put  his  finger  on  any  book  written  in  the  last  or  present 
century  that  Lincoln  ever  read  through.  He  read  little." 

Again  on  page  47 : 

''When  Abe  saw  Grigsby  was  getting  the  best  of 
the  fight  (with  a  friend),  he  burst  into  the  ring,  caught 
Grigsby,  threw  him  some  feet  distant,  and  then  stood 
up,  proud  as  Lucifer,  swinging  a  bottle  of  liquor  over 
his  head  and  swearing  aloud,  ' k  I  am  the  big  buck  of  this 
lick ;  if  any  doubts  it  let  him  come  and  whet  his  horns. ' ' ' 

Lamon,  in  his  Life  of  Lincoln  tells  the  same  story 
only  adding  that  Grigsby  challenged  Lincoln  to  shoot 
with  pistols,  and  Lincoln  replied  that  "he  was  not 
going  to  fool  away  his  life  on  a  single  shot." 

These  high  lights  from  history  of  that  period  writ- 
ten at  the  time  are  given  merely  to  throw  additional 
light  on  the  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  whom  some 
insist  upon  characterizing  a  great  man,  and  even  was 
or  would  have  been  a  friend  to  the  South.  These  ex- 
tracts from  speeches  and  utterances  of  the  leaders  who 
organized  the  sectional  party  which  nominated  him 
for  its  Standard-bearer,  show  the  intense  bitterness 
which  actuated  their  campaign.  And  yet,  soon  after 
his  election  reflecting  the  sentiment  or  convictions  these 
men  were  supposed  to  be  fighting  for,  after  his  inaug- 
uration, upon  receipt  of  a  courteous  letter  from  Alexan- 
der H.  Stephens  expressing  sympathy  for  him  in  the 
great  responsibility  resting  upon  him  as  President, 
etc.,"  Lincoln  wTote  Mr.  Stephens  the  following: 

"(For  your  eye  only.)  Do  the  people  of  the  South 
really  entertain  fear  that  a  Republican  administration 
would  directly  or  indirectly  interfere  with  their  slaves, 
or  with  them  about  their  slaves?    If  they  do,  I  wish 


80  SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


to  assure  you  as  once  a  friend,  and  still,  I  hope,  not  an 
enemy,  that  there  is  no  cause  for  such  fears.  The  South 
would  be  in  no  more  danger  in  this  respect  than  it  was 
in  the  days  of  Washington."  (Public  and  private  let- 
ters of  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  p.  150.) 

Isn't  that  a  most  remarkable  declaration  from  Lin- 
clon  at  such  a  time? — and  in  comparison  with  his  pre- 
vious war-intent  utterances  and  his  subsequent  war  acts  ? 

And  yet,  it  seems  there  was  such  complete  under- 
standing between  Washington  and  Boston,  that  Massa- 
chusetts troops  were  on  the  way  even  before  the  Pres- 
dent's  official  call — true  representatives  of  the  pat- 
riots ( ? )  who  at  Boston  a  few  years  before  on  the  Fourth 
of  July  publicly  burned  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

Now,  one  would  naturally  ask:  If  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
not  contending  with  his  party  for  emancipation,  what 
was  he  contending  for?  His  oft  quoted  remarks  about 
his  ' 1  saving  the  Union"  is  sheer  bosh  in  view  of  the 
above  and  ten  times  more  evidence  that  the  leaders 
of  his  party  were  then  and  had  for  years  been  fighting 
for  disunion,  and  destruction  of  the  South. 

Southern  statesmen  had  been  for  years  trying  to  find 
a  fair  way  to  free  the  slaves.  John  Randolph  had 
freed  his;  R.  E.  Lee  had  liberated  his;  Washington, 
Madison,  Jefferson,  Mason  and  others  endeavored  to 
find  a  solution  of  the  vexing  problem  which  had  been 
left  with  them  by  the  British  government,  which  had 
even  at  one  time  prohibited  efforts  to  stay  its  advance. 
Gen.  Lee,  Geo.  Mason  and  Henry  Clay  had  favored 
emancipation  by  a  gradual  process ;  and  J ef f erson  Davis 
in  the  Senate  had  ''urged  that  a  plan  be  provided  for 
gradual  emancipation  which  would  be  best  for  the  slave 
and  the  slave-holders."    This  was  why  Southern  men 


THE  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  STATES  81 


were  so  insistent  about  securing  more  slave  territory  in 
the  Northwest,  so  as  to  44  relieve  the  congested  condition 
in  the  Southern  states  and  prepare  the  slaves  as  freed 
for  their  future  government,  and  not  have  to  turn  them 
loose  unprepared  in  the  crowded  Southern  states,  for 
human  nature  shudders  at  the  thought  of  sudden  eman- 
cipation." (See  Congressional  Records.) 

Let  us  get  this  clear:  The  States  were  sovereign,  the 
United  States  having  only  such  powers  as  had  been 
specifically  delegated  to  the  Federal  confederation, 
mainly,  to  represent  the  States  in  Foreign  affairs,  and 
to  collect  a  revenue  from  import  taxes  sufficient  to  de- 
fray the  expenses  of  the  government,  and  not  to  protect 
one  section  or  one  industry  at  the  expense  of  another. 
Jefferson  Davis  and  other  Southerners  had  persistently 
urged  that  peace  and  union  could  be  maintained  by 
adherence  to  constitution,  statutes  and  Supreme  Court. 
It  wras  Jefferson  Davis  who  twice  declined  the  appoint- 
ment of  Brigadier  General  because  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States  gave  no  such  authority  to  the  Presi- 
dent. 

Bancroft's  History,  Vol.  VII,  and  Cooper's  American 
Politics,  Book  IV,  and  other  authorities  give  the  Articles 
of  Confederation  as  declaring  4  4  Each  State  retains  its 
sovereignty,  freedom  and  independence,"  and  "all  pow- 
ers not  expressly  delegated." 

As  io  the  citizens'  allegiance,  both  Chief  Justice  Chase 
and  Horace  Greeley  agreed  after  the  war  that  Rawles' 
Constitution  (taught  at  West  Point)  and  Bledsoe's  "Is 
Davis  a  Traitor?"  acquitted  Jefferson  Davis  of  treason, 
4 'as  allegiance  was  due  first  to  the  State." 

Chief  Justice  Chase  said,  4  4  If  Jefferson  Davis  is  ever 
brought  to  trial  it  will  convict  the  North  and  exonerate 
the  South." 


82  SOMETHING  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF 


Responding  to  some  friend  who  asked  Jefferson  Davis 
why  he  had  not  asked  pardon  and  amnesty,  he  replied : 
"  Repentance  must  precede  right  of  pardon,  and  I  have 
not  repented.  Remembering,  as  I  must,  all  which  has 
been  suffered,  all  which  has  been  lost,  disappointed 
hopes  and  crushed  aspirations,  yet  I  deliberately  say,  if 
it  were  to  do  over  again,  I  would  do  just  as  I  did  in 
1861.  Never  teach  your  children  that  their  fathers  were 
wrong  in  their  efforts  to  maintain  the  sovereignty,  free- 
dom and  independence  which  was  their  inalienable 
birthright.  I  cannot  believe  that  the  causes  for  which 
our  sacrifices  were  made  can  ever  be  lost,  but  rather 
hope  that  those  who  now  deny  the  justice  of  our  asserted 
claims  will  learn  from  experience  that  the  fathers 
builded  wisely  and  the  Constitution  should  be  construed 
according  to  the  commentaries  of  those  men  who  made 
it." 


While  this  booklet  is  not  published  for  profit,  it  is 
hoped  that  the  co-operation  of  the  Sons  and  Daughters 
of  Confederate  Veterans  will  be  liberal  in  its  circulation 
among  the  descendants  of  the  Veterans  and  thereby  aid 
to  that  extent  in  the  preservation  of  the  Truth  of  History. 
They  can  thereby  help  in  providing  a  larger  edition. 

Price,  50  cents;  on**  dozen,  $4.00;  two  dozen,  $7.50, 
postpaid. 

Address: 

C.  E.  GILBERT 
910  Peden  Avenue 
Houston,  Texas 


